Why Is The General Admin Dept Trying To Delay The Application Of The Central Rti RTI In J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 stood repealed by virtue of the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (Reorganisation Act) which came into force on October 31, 2019. However, records recently obtained in reply to an RTI request show that the central government’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had begun the process of transitioning from the state’s law to the central Right to Information Act, 2005 (central RTI Act) 15 days before J&K’s status was downgraded and it was bifurcated into two Union Territories on August 5. However, the J&K General Administration Department (JK-GAD) has started a parallel process of examining the central RTI Act’s applicability to the UT of J&K. The transition process would have gone smoothly but for the spanner in the works thrown by J&K-GAD.