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As reported in The Daily Rising Kashmir by Abid Bashir on 20 May 2009

Rising Kashmir, Daily Newspaper, Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir - Right to Information Act

Srinagar: Experts and activists of Right to Information Act Wednesday urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to appoint credible person as the Chief Information Commissioner and to set a separate investigating agency for making RTI a success in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking at a seminar, ‘RTI Act - Role of Civil Society and Media’ organized by RTI Movement, the experts suggested a few names to the Chief Minister for the post of Chief Information Commissioners and two Commissioners that include Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development, S L Bhat and DG CID Ashok Bhan.
“We have also suggested the names of Prof Afzal Qadri of Kashmir University and Prof Kulwant Singh of Jammu University for the posts of CIC,” the experts said.
Advocate Faisal Qadri said whatever possible ways were available in a place like Kashmir to make the government transparent should be used.
“We have RTI Act here. This should be prioritized for ensuring good governance,” he said.
Qadri said people should also resort to filing Public Interest Litigations to make government officials accountable.
Carin Jodha Fisher, a women’s activist working in Kashmir over the past two years said RTI was the need of hour in remote areas of Kashmir where getting clean drinking water is still a dream.
“I have been to various villages of Kashmir and feel there is a need of massive awareness campaign. They are not being treated in a better way by the officials at the helm of affairs,” she said.
JKRTI Movement Convener Raja Muzaffar said media and civil societies had to play a positive role as far as awareness about RTI Act was concerned.
“We have been trying our best to aware people about RTI. Lot needs to be done in this regard,” he said.
Muzaffar said they held a workshop in remote areas of Doda where corruption and vandalisation of forests was at its peak due to non-accessibility of roads.
“The response from the people was good,” he said.