Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh was discussing with Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha the pendency of disposal of RTI applications.
MoS Jitendra Singh (Photo: Twitter)
Non-domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir are now entitled to file RTI related to issues pertaining to the Union territory (UT) following abrogation of the Article 370 and enforcement of the Right to Information Act 2005. Non-state subjects were not entitled to file a RTI on J&K issues prior to 2019.
This was stated by Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh on Tuesday while discussing with Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha the pendency of disposal of RTI applications.
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Dr Jitendra Singh also pointed out that it was during the challenging times of pandemic in May 2020, the Central Information Commission started entertaining, hearing and disposing RTIs from the newly created Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, through virtual means. He said, applicants from J&K and Ladakh were allowed to file RTI applications from home and even for appeals to the CIC three years ago when the Central Information Commission’s jurisdiction was extended after the State turned into two UTs.
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Sinha briefed Dr Jitendra Singh about the status of disposal of the RTI applications from Jammu & Kashmir. After CIC started in J&K, in 2020-21, out of the 844 registered RTI applications, 301 were disposed of. In 2021-22, 297 new RTI applications were registered and 114 were disposed of. In 2022-23, 293 new RTI applications were registered and 697 were disposed of, including those from the backlog of the earlier years.
CIC has been functioning in J&K for the last three years and as of now, only around 300 RTI applications are pending and very soon these will also be disposed of, assured Sinha.
The Union minister also noted that it was during the Modi government that a 24 hour portal service was introduced for e-filing of the RTI applications from any part of the country or abroad. It was during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, he said, that the office of Central Information Commissioner was shifted to its own exclusive office complex.
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