Plea filed for bringing J-K parties under ambit of RTI Act

Amid a debate on CIC order bringing major political parties under RTI, activists here have filed a plea before the J-K Information Commission seeking that regional political parties of the state be brought under the ambit of the transparency law.
"We hail the decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC) to bring national political parties under the RTI Act 2005," activists Balvinder Singh and Deepak Sharma of Sangarsh RTI Movement said today.
The activists said that they have filed a petition for bringing three main political parties of the state National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP) under the ambit of state RTI Act.

They said the order of the CIC is not applicable to regional political parties and the State Information Commission has no powers to suo motu declare these parties as public authorities under State RTI Act unless any resident of the state approaches the state Commission in this regard.
"We have also sought details from parties which include their donors during the last five years, expenses incurred by these political parties for the period and benefits enjoyed by these regional political parties in terms of office accommodations and income tax exemption," the activists said and expressed the hope that the parties will support efforts to bring transparency in the system.