Could you imagine that if someone tries to use his democratic right he will be roughed up. That may not happen anywhere else, but in Kashmir it does happen. I wonder what RTI Rather Sahab is talking about? We once tried and in return got treated like criminals. And the best part is that all this happened in his own assembly constituency,Shahnawaz Wani and Nazir Ahmed Ganai respond to the recent statement of Finance Minister which he made while reacting to PDP allegations

This refers to the statement of Finance Minister Mr A R Rather while responding to the allegations made by Peoples Democratic Party regarding the CM's involvement in corruption and misappropriation of public money. Mr Rather in his press conference said that people can seek information about these allegations under Right to Information Act (RTI Act). I don't know whether the PDP's allegation is correct or fabricated but one thing i want to ask Mr Rather is that we also tried to use RTI to seek information regarding various works executed in his assembly constituency but unfortunately five of our friends were put behind the bars some months back. We were handcuffed and paraded in the Chadoora town as if we were some dreaded criminals. There are fabricated charges such as theft, loot arson etc which are still pending against us in the court. What was our sin ? We were trying to create awareness about RTI law in Rather sahib's assembly constituency but this was never liked by his party workers who feel they will be exposed. If the Government is really sincere about RTI where is the State Chief Information Commission (SCIC) ? It is nearly one and a half year now since the J&K RTI Act 2009 got enacted but the State Information Commission is still headless. There are hundreds of cases where people need to file complaints and appeals in the State Information Commission but where is this Commission ? I also want to ask Mr Rather how much money he has allotted for the RTI awareness in state by Finance Deptt ? Not a single penny has been spent on RTI awareness since this new Law was enacted in March 2009. This was revealed after some questions were asked by a Panthers' Party MLA during the last assembly session in Jammu. RTI is a toothless tiger in J&K and Government must not make any hue and cry about this any more.

(Shahnawaz Wani, Nazir Ahmed Ganai are from Yarikalan, Chadoora, Budgam)

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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