Asks Governor to withhold his consent

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) while describing the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill of 2007, adopted by the two houses of the state Legislature, as ‘half-hearted effort’, has urged Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) S. K. Sinha, to withhold his consent on the plea that the Bill had a number of lacunae.

The State Legislature has made some amendments in its existing Right to Information (RTI) Act, claiming to make it at par with Central Act. However, the rights body stresses that the amendments need lot more amendments.

In a communication to the Governor, the Human Rights body has requested Sinha to withhold his consent to the Bill under section 78 of the state constitution.

"The amendments to the RTI bill were inadequate and do not provide citizens seeking information from the public bodies in Jammu and Kashmir the same guarantees and protection available to people in other states,” the rights body remarked.

It has also been requested the Governor to withhold his assent till the state Legislature makes the Bill at a par with the central act passed in 2005.