JKNPP protests over subversion of RTI by rulers, bureaucrats
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Agitated over the fast collapsing Right to Information in the State, Panthers Party on Thursday staged a massive protest against the RTI Act being sabotaged in the State.
A strong contingent of Panthers Party activists spearheaded by Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers assembled at Exhibition Ground, here and raised slogans anti government slogans.
Harsh Dev, while addressing the media, squarely held the BJP-PDP responsible for making the progressive RTI Act in the State almost defunct.
He divulged that out of the three members of state Information Commission (SIC) two including CIC had retired months back and the lone Information Commissioner was due to retire this month or so but the government had remained apathetic to initiate any process for reconstitution of the said SIC.
Admonishing the laidback attitude shown by the bureaucrats and other government functionaries towards the RTI Act in the absence of stern punitive measures, Harsh said that there was plethora of examples to highlight the contemptuous disregard of the RTI applications of information seekers by the said officers. He revealed that it had become a routine affair where the higher authorities and Administrative Department had been forwarding the RTI applications to hundreds of their subordinates merely to create confusion and abdicate their responsibility to provide the information. He said that vague and absurd replies were being given in several others cases only to evade, avoid and conceal the information. Moreover, he said, the senior officers often sheltered their subordinates despite proven instances of violation of the Act.
Inculpating the present government for sabotaging the Act, Harsh said that the ministers and MLAs particularly those of BJP believed notion that while transparency was good for others, they should be left free and unquestioned.
He said that the BJP’s resistance to RTI Act came to fore when one of the BJP MLAs moved a Bill in the recently concluded Assembly session for amendment of J and K RTI Act and alleged misuse of the Act by the so called “unscrupulous elements”.
He disclosed that the mover of the said Bill was the same MLA who called himself RTI activist before becoming MLA and had filed unlimited RTI applications against various government departments. He said that it was ironical that the same BJP MLA was new speaking of misuse of RTI when his own dirty laundry had been exposed before the public through RTI. He said that most astounding aspect was the support the he received from his BJP colleagues in the House.
Kundal, while rebuking the hollow slogans of the coalition government of good governance, transparency and accountability, observed that the solitary powerful legislation against corruption was being sabotaged by the government itself.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Partap, Nirmal Kishore, Satbir, Shanker Singh Sanju, Arun Khajuria, Jeevan Sharma, Kewal Kumar, Udhay Veer, Mohan Lal, Mohinder Singh, Kewal Krishan Sharma and Anil Rakwal.
