RTI IN J&K: GOVERNOR URGED TO WITHOLD HIS CONSENT
Jammu, September 12 (KIP):-The Commonwealth
Human Rights Initiative has urged Governor,
LtGen (Retd )S.K.Sinha, to withhold his consent to
the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill of 2007,
which has been adopted by the two houses of the state
Legislature, on the plea that the Bill had a number of lacuna.
In a communication to the Governor the Human
Rights body has requested Mr Sinha to withhold his
consent to the Bill under section 78 of the state
constitution. "The amendments to the RTI bill were
inadequate and do not provide citizens seeking information from
the public bodies in Jammu and Kashmir the same
guarantees and protection available to people in other
states, the rights body noted.
It has also requested the Governor to withhold his
assent till the state Legislature amended the RTI Bill
so that it was at a par with the central Act passed by
the Indian Parliament in 2005.
“The proposed amendments are a half-hearted measure and do not go the whole length of the way to bring the State RTI Act at par with the Central RTI Act. There was no visible public consultation conducted by the State Government prior to the tabling of the Amendments. Several MLAs had strongly argued for referring the Amendment Bill to a joint select committee consisting of members of both Houses of the J&K Legislature for detailed consideration of the Act and the amendments as this is an important law giving effect to a fundamental right of citizens something that was ignored by the state legislature,” the statement issued by the CHRI claimed.
The Amendments remain inadequate because they do not provide for the citizens, seeking information from public bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, the same guarantees and protections available to citizens in other parts of the country under the Central Right to Information Act, 2005.
According to CHRI press statement the amendments do not effectively secure the fundamental right to access information for citizens in Jammu and Kashmir. If the Amendment Bill becomes law, citizens will have inferior rights in matters relating to seeking and obtaining information from the Government as compared to that enjoyed by citizens in other parts of the country. Furthermore the amendments will create a weak enforcement mechanism for securing compliance of public bodies with the provisions of the J&K RTI Act. The Amendment Bill requires several changes if it is to bring the Jammu and Kashmir RTI Act at par with the Central RTI Act.(KIP)
KASHMIR INDEPENDENT PRESS(KIP)
(News Agency of Jammu & Kashmir)
kipnews1@gmail.com M-9419191026
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