Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, has said applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act related to Offices in Jammu and Kashmir under the Union Territory Administration will soon come under the jurisdiction of the Central Information Commission CIC). “A notification in this regard will be issued soon and the same pattern will be followed as in other UTs,” he said after a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Refuting reports in a section of the media on the ambiguity regarding the applicability of the RTI Act in the UT of J&K, Dr Jitendra Singh said all provisions of the RTI Act will be enforced in the newly carved out UT. “At the lower level, – Public Information Officers (PIOs) and First Appellate Authority the procedure for disposing of RTI applications will remain the same; the CIC comes into picture when the applicant makes Second Appeal which can henceforth be filed with the CIC,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.
