After enactment of a progressive version of State RTI law in year 2009, Omar Abdullah Government came up with one more pro-people legislation in 2011, namely J&K Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA-2011). A couple of months back Governor administration included 88 new services under this law, and now we have 183 services that come under the ambit of J&K Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA). But when it comes to implementation of this law, the situation is pathetic. People continue to suffer due to inefficient public services, and corruption The officers entrusted to implement PSGA are themselves unaware about this law. The Government’s own machinery who are supposed to implement PSGA are also not well versed with this law. The lack of awareness among citizens is making this law more ineffective.
Lack of training
Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) revolves round three Government functionaries who are designated as a ) Designated Officer (DO) b) First Appellate Authority (FAA) and c) Second Appellate Authority (SAA). Majority of these Government officers are no trained how to deal with PSGA applications. Those who were trained by various agencies (IMPA etc) several years back are now either retried or have been promoted to some higher grade. To know what Government has done to create awareness about PSGA in Ganderbal district, one of our activists, Sohail Khan, filed RTI application in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal few months back. The ignorant Public Information Officer (PIO) , instead of checking his own office record, or collecting it from all districts officers, forwarded the RTI application to all the Tehsildars of the district Ganderbal. I don’t understand how can Tehsildar conduct awareness programmes on PSGA? In return, only one officer responded. One officer instead of providing the actual figures, provided details which were irrelevant and misleading. Other officers didn’t even respond. Similarly, to get the actual figures about the number of workshops, seminars and other sensitization programmes conducted by Government for its officials and general masses towards understanding RTI and PSGA laws, General Administration Department (GAD) failed to reveal the details to me. More than 3 months have elapsed since I sought these details from GAD under RTI Act, but the PIO instead of providing information forwarded my application to all the Administrative Departments in Civil Secretariat by misusing the provision of section 6 (3) of JK RTI Act 2009. GAD is the custodian of this information and the PIO should have provided the same to me. If a legislator seeks similar information from GAD will the PIO tell MLA, MLC or MP to contact all the Adm departments ? Pertinently RTI Act clearly says that the information which can’t be denied to Member of Parliament of State legislature cannot be denied to a citizen.
Conclusion
General Administration Department (GAD) and other Administrative Departments plus the district administrations have nothing to share vis a vis PSGA. During last 3 years they have conducted not even half a dozen training sessions for Govt officials on PSGA . Not even 10 % designated Govt officers, who have to implement PSGA, have been trained. Adding new services to PSGA serves no purpose as estimated 80 % of the Govt officers don’t know how to dispose off a petition filed under PSGA . The Designated Officers (DOs) , First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) and Second Appellate Authorities (SAA) are ignorant about the basic provisions of this law. How can citizens get justice? On the other hand citizens also hardly use PSGA as they too are ignorant about this beautiful legislation. Ironically during last 7 years not even one dozen officers have been penalized for not adhering to PSGA provisions. The position of Second Appellate Authority (SAA) needs to be deleted from the law and replaced with an independent Commission that would hold DOs and FAA s accountable on the pattern of State Information Commission (SIC) constituted under RTI Act. Mere enacting laws is not sufficient , authorities should also make these laws workable.