6 months on, SIC remains headless

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 27

The State Information Commission (SIC), a primer institution constituted to ensure transparency in the administration and curb corruption, continues to remain headless and virtually defunct despite a lapse of almost six months.

The PDP-BJP government, which has completed more than three months in office, is yet to initiate the process for appointment of a new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and an Information Commissioner in the three-member SIC.

GR Sufi completed his term as the CIC on February 29 while the post of one Information Commissioner had been lying vacant since October last year when Dr SK Sharma retired.

“It is highly unfortunate that even after a lapse of six months, the state government has not initiated the process to appoint new members of the commission. In the absence of a strong RTI commission, the state bureaucracy does not take RTI pleas seriously and the common man is taken for granted,” said Raman Sharma, an RTI activist.

He believed that the state government was stonewalling transparency in governance. “Then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had brought the concept of the RTI Act to Jammu and Kashmir. The PDP, in alliance with the BJP, is reluctant now to appoint new commission members. The delay in appointment has made an adverse impact on overall functioning of the administration,” he said.

J&K was under the Governor’s rule when the CIC retired. Procedural glitches delayed the appointment of the new CIC.

Under the J&K RTI Act, 2009, the appointment of the CIC and Information Commissioner can be made by the Governor only when the selection committee comprising the CM, Leader of Opposition and one Cabinet Minister nominated by the CM recommends the name.

“The PDP-BJP government has shown no seriousness to ensure transparency in the administration. This is clear from its insensitive approach towards the commission, which has virtually turned defunct. The RTI Act, once a great tool of transparency and accountability, is now dying a slow death because of the indifferent approach of coalition partners,” said Deepak Sharma, a Jammu-based activist.

He said it was astonishing that the PDP was the only party which had declared its election expenditure during the last Assembly elections, but it had now turned a blind eye to the prevailing situation.