A workshop on J&K RTI Act, 2009 for the Public Information Officers and First Appellate Authorities was organised here today under the chairmanship of State Chief Information Commissioner, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai.Deputy Commissioner Niraj Kumar, ADC Avny Lavasa, ACR Subash Chander Dogra, CPO Ashok Khajuria besides all district and block level officers attended the workshop.Addressing the participants, the CIC stressed that the RTI Act has strengthened democracy and is still in the process of evolution in the state. He informed that over 27,000 RTI applications were received during the year 2016-17 while about 30,000 applications were received in the year 2014-15. The CIC explained various features and important sections of the act to the PIOs and FAAs through power point presentation.He further highlighted section-4 of the act which deals with the suo-motto disclosure of information by PIOs besides various obligations of public authorities under the act.
The CIC further emphasized on the role of PIOs in facilitating the Right to Information and asked them to carefully examine the applications before dealing them under section 8, - exemptions from disclosure of information, section 6(3)- transfer of application to other Public authority and section 11, information pertaining to third party.The CIC also threw light on the powers of State Information Commission to impose penalty under Section-17 of the act. He said that a penalty at the rate of Rs 250 per day or a maximum of Rs 25,000 can be imposed on PIOs in case of delay in providing information. “In addition to this, the SIC can also recommend disciplinary action against the PIO who has without any cause refused to receive an application, failed to provide information within the specified time, knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information” he informed.The CIC directed Deputy Commissioner for organising more such workshops and training programmes on RTI in the district. He also stressed on the need for the training of PIOs and FAAs on RTI in various institutes like IMPA.