RTI glitches in J&K
RTI in J&K is not what it might appear on the face of it. It does not truly permit any citizen to request information held by a public authority, to encourage accountability and transparency in governance. It claims empowering citizens to get information in different formats and allows for social audits, thereby making it a multidimensional tool for so called democracy and good governance. But, unfortunately, such a claim is difficult to realise given a lop sided infrastructure (Iram, 2022) and research and development (R&D) base.
There is a digital platform which is incapable of sending OTPs to non-J&K contact numbers. Information and communication technology is very poor in remote areas. Furthermore, there is information asymmetry in rural areas which leads to the poor information driving rich information out of the market. It has a dual effect: on one hand, it makes information laws (particularly RTI) unrealistic and unsustainable, and on another hand, it promotes bad outcomes in general for the society. Moreover, there is a very bad data sharing culture (especially metadata) in Jammu and Kashmir (Kumar, 2021) and hence, research and knowledge base is also very poor. This aggravates inefficiencies in every sector of the economy and RTI is no exception. There is also a bad interface between academic research and sponsored research in Jammu and Kashmir. This is also one of the reasons for the generation of bad or poor information in the society and economy at large coupled with lack of relevant knowledge in the concerned subject. Hence, RTI act is not able to perform up to its real capacity.
There is a persistent dependency on a tiresome offline process irrespective of the applicability of the central RTI Act. In the first place, we find outdated information on government websites and portals and in the second place, we see dysfunctional government websites in generic form, and academic and research websites in the precise form. Additionally, there is a big knowledge and information gap between general public and information and research officers. Accordingly, the input and output in the information and communication technology departments pertaining to different sectors are unproductive. There is lack of awareness or exposure among the public officers which is why they are unable to disseminate relevant data and information to the general public. There is absence of an upright J&K-specific online portal and therefore a very high probability for the misuse of the public laws, especially persecution and information laws.
In order to remove the glitches in RTI act, it is very important to ensure proactive exposure and for that matter there must be a regular updation of departmental websites. Moreover, there is a need to establish a full-fleged local body who will look after all matters right from the scratch. It will handle cases properly and improve the efficiency levels. It is equally important to address knowledge and digital connectivity gaps in far flung areas where internet access is limited. Integrated solutions amalgamating improved physical access points with online filing may be very appealing. In other words, a good interface between offline and online information may be necessary and offering desired results.
Dr. Binish Qadri, Assistant Professor, Cluster University Srinagar.
