Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 13: The Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat have become the first Public Authorities to submit Annual Return for the 2012-13 year to the State Information Commission, the last date of which for all the departments is May 15, 2013.
At the end of each financial year, furnishing of Annual Returns on the implementation of the Right to Information Act to the State Information Commission by the Administrative Departments including Public Authorities and Heads of Departments falling under their purview is mandatory under Section 22 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009.
This year Raj Bhavan and Chief Minister’s Secretariat have become the first Public Authorities to submit the Annual Return for the year 2012-13 on time to SIC. “This reflects the importance which is being attached to the implementation of the Act and compliance with the provisions of the Act at the level of these highest offices in the State”, the SIC said while disclosing that May 15, 2013 has been set an outer date for furnishing of the return which is vital requirement for formulating Annual Report for the 2012-13.
When contacted, Chief Information Commissioner, G R Sufi said, “since the State Information Commission is the final authority to oversee the implementation of the Act in the State it becomes obligatory on part of all the Government departments and public authorities to furnish Annual Return indicating that number of applications received under the RTI Act, number of replies furnished, number of rejections with ground for the same etc”, adding “the Annual Returns finally help the Commission in formulating its annual report”.
“The methodology for collecting, compiling and sending these annual returns in a consolidated form has time and again been made known to the Administrative Departments”, he said, adding “the process of furnishing these annual returns starts at the level of each PIO at block, district and divisional level and furnishing of the same to the office of HoD concerned, who in turn consolidates it for the whole of the department after adding figures of their own office and submits to Administrative Department concerned. Thereafter Administrative Department submits the same to SIC”.
The Chief Information Commissioner said that an effort has to be made that each and every RTI application received by the PIOs at different levels gets computed and reflected in the Annual Return. He hoped that the Administrative Departments and Public Authorities will follow the Raj Bhavan and Chief Minister’s Secretariat and speed up the furnishing of the Annual Return in prescribed format.
According to Mr Sufi, the Annual Returns also indicate that how the people are using their democratic right and how much cooperation is being extended by the Government departments and public authorities in ensuring strict compliance of the Act.
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