Omar’s claims of bringing political parties under RTI ‘meaningless’: PDP NC weakened RTI Act, bypassed role of CIC Srinagar, Sept 4: Terming Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s claim of providing support to bring political parties under the ambit of Right to Information Act (RTI) as “hypocrisy”, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday said such utterances are meaningless unless people know the details of the wealth amassed by top NC leadership. “Nobody knows the factual position about the money being given to NC top leadership in lieu of MLC seats. If NC is really sincere about transparency and accountability why the party doesn’t declares itself a “public authority” so that people can seek information from them about Haji Yousuf’s mysterious death and the money that changed hands amongst the top party leadership?” PDP chief spokesperson, Naeem Akhtar in a statement issued to GNS said. He said people want to know about the illegal financial dealings taking place within the ruling party. “Will the party provide all such information under RTI Act to the people of State? Has the amount collected from various characters involved in the episode been returned to them?” Akhtar said, adding the party needs to come clean on all these issues and the source of wealth of the top party leadership. Akhtar said it was NC- led government which weakened J&K RTI Act-2009 by amending its rules last year in September. “The government has rendered State Information Commission (SIC) toothless by clipping the powers of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and also degrading the rank and status of the Secretary State Information Commission who under the previous RTI rules could only be appointed if he was in the grade of a Special Secretary to J&K government,” he said adding now even Additional Secretary is eligible for the post of Secretary SIC. Naeem said that SIC had powers to summon and issuing warrants to any erring officer, but “that rule has also been changed by the NC regime. Even the rules for the physical appearance of top level government functionaries before SIC were amended and now it has no such powers.” Blaming government of bypassing the role of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) in appointing Secretary State Information Commission and diluting his authority PDP chief spokesperson said the chief minister during his speech spoke about the importance of section 4 of RTI Act. “But even his own office has not adhered to it; the official website of J&K Government is defunct since 3 years. Can Omar Abdullah tell people what kind of voluntary disclosure the CM’s office has made under section 4 of RTI Act?” Meanwhile, according to party spokesperson, former chairman of the Legislative Council and senior NC leader Abdul Rashid Dar joined PDP in presence of the party patron Mufti Mohammad Saeed at a simple function here today. Welcoming Dar into party ranks Mufti said it was time that all right thinking people whether in NC or elsewhere join hands with him in order to retrieve the state from uncertainty and mis-governance. “The party doors are open for everybody who wants to play an active role for restoration of state’s dignity and empowerment of its people”. According to statement, Dar while speaking on the occasion said he was disillusioned with the performance of the NC led government which had failed to honour its pledges to the people made during the last elections. “The governance has touched the worst ever levels and corruption had increased beyond control, the youth are targeted systematically, political opponents are denied freedom to operate within the constitutional space and government was trying to enforce peace through force which was fraught with serious danger,” Dar, according to statement said. (GNS)
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:37:16 +0000
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