Govt ignored my repeated requests for over 4 months: CIC

‘RTI was born in J&K 7 years back but it is still not fully operational’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jul 26: Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), Ghulam Rasool Sufi, today lamented that Government of Jammu and Kashmir was not showing seriousness in implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He expressed displeasure over the government’s inaction in making the State Information Commission (SIC) fully operational and, after months of silence, disclosed that the Government had ignored his repeated requests of appointing two commissioners for the SIC.

Breaking his silence with regard to excessive delay in appointment of the two Information Commissioners, CIC told Early Times that his repeated requests to the Government had failed to yield anything in the last over four months. Appointment of two Information Commissioners, as provided in the law, would make the SIC complete and fully functional for implementation of the RTI Act. Sufi expressed his shock and anguish over the fact that the SIC was incomplete and the RTI was not fully in operation even after seven years of its birth in the state.

According to him, it was a matter of pride for Jammu and Kashmir that this strife-ravaged state had pioneered in making the legislation on RTI in 2004 and subsequently making it equivalent of the Central law with an amendment in 2009. Even as RTI had been made stronger and more comprehensive in recent past, it was not fully in force in absence of a complete SIC, he said. Sufi revealed that after his appointment on February 9th this year and particularly in the last four months, he had been meeting the ruling as well as opposition parties and pursuing the matter of the appointment of two Information Commissioners but there had been no action from the concerned authorities.

CIC said that he would like to see the SIC fully operational with one Information Commissioner holding the office in Jammu and another in Srinagar. He said that since February this year, he had been single-handedly conducting the SIC’s business while shuttling between Srinagar, Jammu and Leh. He made yet another passionate appeal---this time through media---to the Government to accomplish the constitution of the SIC with the appointment of two Information Commissioners so as to fulfill the mandate of the Legislature “without further loss of time”.

Even as J&K had taken lead in the country in making RTI in 2004 and the law had been made stronger with two amendments in 2009 and 2011, successive governments failed to constitute the SIC for several years. For nearly two years, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah maintained that he was waiting for then Chairman of the Central Information Commission, Wajahat Habibullah, to take over as the maiden Chairman of SIC in Jammu and Kashmir. That, however, proved to be wrong as Wajahat did not accept the offer even after completing his 5-year-long tenure at the Central Information Commission. Then functioning as Chief Income Tax Commissioner for north India, a 1977 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service and a permanent resident of Srinagar,Sufi was finally appointed as the first CIC in J&K on February 9^th, 2011.

Governor is by law competent to appoint CIC and two Information Commissioners on the recommendations of a selection committee comprising Chief Minister, one Cabinet Minister to be nominated by him and Leader of the Opposition/ Leader of the single largest opposition party in Legislative Assembly.

 “The Information Commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance”, says the law.

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