RTI ring: PDP hits out at Omar NC should declare itself as Public Authority first: Akhter Srinagar, Sep 4: A day after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah supported bringing political parties under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party Wednesday trashed the utterance as “meaningless.” Omar’s statement, according to PDP’s chief spokesman Naeem Akhter, “once again reflects hypocrisy of National Conference.” “Such utterances are meaningless unless people know the details of the wealth amassed by the top leadership of National Conference,” Akhter said in a statement here. He said nobody knows the factual position about the “money being given to NC’s top leadership in lieu of MLC seats. And Haji Yousuf’s death removed the lid from to all such corrupt practices only partially,” he said. He said if NC is really sincere about transparency and accountability, why the party doesn’t declare itself as a ‘Public Authority’ so that people can “seek information about Haji Yousuf’s mysterious death and the money that changed hands amongst the top party leadership.” “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 asked Akhtar said it was the NC- led government which weakened the J&K RTI Act-2009 by amending its rules in September last year. “The government has rendered the State Information Commission (SIC) toothless by clipping the powers of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and also degrading the rank and status of its Secretary, 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. The SIC had powers to summon and issue warrants to any erring officer but that rule has also been changed by the NC regime.” He said, “Even the rules for the physical appearance of top level government functionaries before SIC were amended and now it has no such powers.” Akhtar said the government has also bypassed the role of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) in appointing Secretary State Information Commission, diluting his authority. He said chief minister during his speech talked 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 for the past three years. Can Omar Abdullah tell people what kind of voluntary disclosure the CM’s office has made under section 4 of RTI Act?” Akhtar asked.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:20:33 +0000
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