STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Activists of Sangarsh RTI Movement on Tuesday lambasted the State Government for willfully making the State Information Commission (SIC) defunct.
Addressing the media persons here, Balvinder Singh, Convener Sangarsh RTI Movement said that because of the callous approach of the government towards transparency and accountability, the SIC in the State has become a defunct body after the retirement of lone Information Commissioner Nazir Ahmed in November this year.
“The government has not shown any seriousness to appoint any Information Commissioner and Chief Information Commissioner even after a year of their retirement,” he said adding that though the strengthening and implementation of RTI and providing a transparent and accountable government was one of the main agenda in the election manifesto of both the coalition partners but it is saddened that after coming into power the same parties are leaving no stone unturned to stonewall the accountability and transparency in the government functioning and thereby denying the common people from exercising their fundamental right to Know and make the government accountable.
Another RTI activist, Deepak Sharma said that it is surprising that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which was the only political party in the State who had earlier given information under J&K RTI Act, but after coming into power the same party has completely taken a U turn and instead of strengthening the transparency regime in the State, it has totally paralysed the Transparency Commission.
