No Budgetary Provision for RTI in J&K Budget – Vijay Kumar – Ground News – 14 March 2011

Jammu, March 14 (Scoop News) –RTI activists have criticized the state government and finance minister for making no budgetary provision for implementation of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act. The activists have questioned the so called anti-corruption drive of the state government.
In a statement the members of Sangarsh RTI Movement including its convener, Balvinder Singh, Raman Sharma, Ayaz Mughal, Darvinder Singh have asked the finance minister to make necessary budgetary provision for proper implementation of RTI Act in the state. Showing resentment over the budget 2011-12, the disappointed members said, “ the state government have failed to formulate any concrete policy to tackle the corruption issue in the state, it is very shameful that in the entire budget speech of the finance minister the word “corruption” was missing and only twice the words like “accountability” and “ transparency” were used”. They said when the entire state and country is concerned over the corruption which has become an epidemic, then how can the finance minister remain silent and ignorant.?
The Sangarsh Group also raised the issue of dysfunctioning of State Accountability Commission. Seeking government’s immediate attention towards the rising graph of corruption in the state, the activists groups demanded complete transparency, accountability and surveillance over the ongoing projects.
They also said, at one side, the Chief Minister makes sky-high promises for erasing corruption form the state but contrary to his pledges, the state finance minister have shown that the state government is non-serious towards implementation of Right to Information Act and it was the only reason that the state government have made zero budgetary provision for RTI awareness and training programs .
Elsewhere in the country this transparency law i.e. Right to Information have been able to take over the corruption but unfortunately in our state because of the casual approach of the bureaucrats and government the act has not seen the light of the day. The government cannot skip its responsibility by merely appointing the Chief Information Commission, the activists asserted.