Provisions of transparency law being constantly violated
*Only few deptts putting statements on websites
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 29: Constantly violating the transparency law, several Public Authorities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are not filing quarterly returns under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and those ensuring compliance of this provision are not putting application disposal statements on their respective websites.
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The Section 25 of the RTI Act, which deals with monitoring and reporting, states: “The Central Information Commission shall as soon as after the end of each year prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of this Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the appropriate Government”.
“Each Department shall, in relation to the Public Authorities within their jurisdiction, collect and provide such information to the Central Information Commission as is required to prepare the report and comply with the requirements concerning the furnishing of that information and keeping of records”, the Section further states.
This Section also provides that each Public Authority is required to submit four quarterly returns for assessment of performance during the year and those which fail to submit their returns even for a single quarter are treated as ‘defaulter’ by the Central Information Commission.
However, several Public Authorities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are not filing quarterly returns in blatant violation of explicit provisions of the transparency law, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the non-compliance is notwithstanding the fact that on numerous occasions not only Central Information Commission but General Administration Department also issued directions in this regard”.
“Last year, several Public Authorities of J&K UT were declared as defaulters by the Central Information Commission but despite this non-compliance continues during the current year”, they further said, adding “while some Public Authorities have submitted returns for only one quarters others have completely avoided this mandatory provision”.
Moreover, many Public Authorities, which have submitted the quarterly returns, have not put the statements of applications disposal on their respective websites, which again is mandatory, sources further informed, adding “such statements are required to be submitted to the Administrative Secretary of the Public Authorities besides being put on the websites”.
As per the RTI Act, each report is required to state the number of requests made to each Public Authority; the number of decisions where applicants were not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests, the provisions of Act under which these decisions were made and the number of times such provisions were invoked; the number of appeals referred to the Central Information Commission for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the appeals; particulars of any disciplinary action taken against any officer in respect of the administration of Act.
Further, each report is required to highlight the amount of charges collected by each Public Authority under the Act; any facts which indicate an effort by the Public Authorities to administer and implement the spirit and intention of Act; recommendations for reform, including recommendations in respect of the particular Public Authorities, for the development, improvement, modernisation, reform or amendment to Act etc.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the last year’s report the Central Information Commission had mentioned that against a total of 43 Public Authorities in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir only 23 filed all the four quarterly returns for the year 2022-23.
As per the General Administration Department circular, all the Central Public Information Officers of all the departments, their subordinate and field offices, Corporations, Boards and Public Sector Undertakings are required to register themselves and submit quarterly returns on the designated portal of the Central Information Commission.
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