Demanding answers not anarchy, strengthens citizen-govt relation: Tarigami

Kulgam, July 05:   Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, MLA Kulgamon Saturday said that people’s right to know, effectuated by asking questions and demanding answers from the public authorities is the very essence of accountable governance. Presiding over the sensitization seminar organised jointly by J&K RTI Movement, CHRI and civil society of Kulgam,  Tarigami said that asking questions and demanding answers from the government are not acts of anarchy. “RTI is not about making allegations or false imputations or indulging in abusive conversations with government functionaries”, he said. Instead, it has the salutary effect of improving public confidence in the administration and bringing the citizenry closer to governance structures. It creates opportunities and spaces for reform,” he said.He noted that the initial fears entertained in some quarters that RTI laws would weaken governance structures have been proven baseless. There is even greater necessity of such laws and their effective implementation in the current circumstances, he noted. Mr. Tarigami urged participants to ask questions and demand answers from the public authorities. Tarigami lamented that the rules of government business are not publicly available even after over eight months of the elected government being in place. He said, “Government officers do not know whether to pass a file to the left or the right in the course of decision making.”People have no clue about the reasons for the delay, he noted. So it is all the more important that people use the RTI law to demand answers in a peaceful and democratic manner, he said.On the occasion, Wajahat Habibullah, India’s first Chief Information Commissioner, said the RTI Act has been enacted with the specific objective of attending to people’s grievances about the actions and omissions of the administration. Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, Founder Chairperson of J&K RTI Movement formally welcomed the dignitaries and delivered an insightful introduction, offering a comprehensive overview of the J&K RTI Movement.Venkatesh Nayak, Director, CHRI, recalled his experience from a two-day capacity development workshop conducted in Srinagar earlier this month, where participating young lawyers and law students identified governance, development, and corruption-related issues in rural areas for drafting RTI applications.Mohammad Abbas, Member DDC, Kulgam said that the partnership with J&K RTI Movement and CHRI which was formed in 2015 is being revived now as progress had been affected by the challenging circumstances that J&K faced since 2019