STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed who is also an RTI activist credited for exposing scams regarding illegal appointments/ encroachment of State land by the organized land mafia and also for filing numerous PILs in the State High Court highlighting corruption has participated in the two-day Central Information Commission (CIC) 11th Annual Convention-2016 on 7th and 8th November, 2016 at Dr. D.S Kothari Auditorium, DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi.
This two-day Annual Convention was inaugurated by the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh followed by an impressive speech by Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS PMO. The Lt. Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, Chief Information Commissioner Central Information Commission R.K Mathur along with other Central Information Commissioners were also present. A book on RTI success stories was released on the occasion while e-court software was also launched.
While highlighting corruption in State of J&K, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed apprised about the lackadaisical approach of the State Government in not filling the vacant slots of Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner. He further highlighted that presently the State Information Commission is being run by a sole Information Commissioner namely Nazir Ahmed who too is demitting the office on 15th November, 2016.
He said despite the intervention of the State High Court in a public interest litigation, the Government of J&K is unmoved and no meeting of the selection committee headed by the Chief Minister has been convened to finalize the names of the probables for the vacant slots of CIC and SIC. He further submitted that the excuse of unrest is taken for dealing such important issues when the “transfer industry” is fully functional in the turbulent state. He sought the intervention of the Central Information Commission and DoPT for making the State Information Commission functional so that it is saved from becoming defunct after 15th November, 2016.
Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed also raised the issue of non-implementation of J&K RTI Act, 2009 for J&K Bank Ltd. He put a specific query during a session on RTI and the Banking/Insurance Sector to the top Executives of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as to why the J&K Bank has been kept outside the purview of J&K RTI Act, 2009 when the said bank is discharging public functions by accepting deposits from public and being banker to State of J&K. He further submitted that there is no justification for keeping J&K Bank from outside the purview of transparency law and why the RBI is not playing its regulatory function over the J&K Bank.
All the State CICs and Information Commissioners including Retired Chief Information Commissioners Central Information Commission including Wajahat Habib Ullah and noted RTI activists participated in the two days RTI Annual Convention. Nazir Ahmed Information Commissioner J&K State Information Commission and Balwinder Singh Chairman Sangarsh RTI Movement J and K also participated in the convention.
