834 designated as J&K Bank PIOs, APIOs, AAs

JAMMU: A week after the Jammu and Kashmir bank was brought under the purview of Right to Information (RTI) Act, the state’s premier financial institution has designated 834 employees as Public Information Officers, their assistants and Appellate Authority to provide information to the information seekers, first major step towards the implementation of the significant Act.

The developments came days after state government started ‘long term measures to improve the functioning of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank’ beginning with removal of incumbent Chairman Parvez Ahmad, while the Board of Directors of Bank which met for the first time under the Chairmanship of its interim Chairman & Managing Director Rajesh Kumar Chhibber had decided to bring the bank under the purview of J&K RTI Act 2009 and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines with effect from 17th of June, aimed towards improving governance and bringing more transparency in the functioning of the Bank.

On Sunday, the bank designated 11 officers as Public Information Officers for different zones of branches who will be responsible for providing information to applicants. These are Manzoor-Ul-Haq for Kashmir Central 1, Mohammad Ashraf for Kashmir Central 2, Imtiyaz Ahmad Kabadi for Kashmir North, Nissar Ahmad Dar for South 1, Mohammad Hussain Bhat for South 2, Shishu Paul Malhotra for Jammu Central 1, Rahul Gupta for Jammu Central 2, Satish Kumar for Jammu North 1, Surender Kumar Raina for Jammu North 2, Yudhvir Singh Jamwal for Jammu West, and Masarat Rasool for Leh.

Besides PIOs, the J&K Bank has designated 11 officers as “Appellate Authorities” (AA) under Jammu and Kashmir Right to information Act, 2009.

Any applicant who has not been supplied the requisite information or is not satisfied with the information furnished may file appeal before the designated “Appellate Authority” as provided by the Jammu and Kashmir Right to information Act,2009.

Besides, the J&K Bank has designated 812 officers as Assistant public information officers (APIO’s) under Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 who shall receive and forward the RTI applications/Appeals to the designated PIO and Appellate Authority.

Assistant public information officer are not by themselves responsible for supplying any information to the RTI Applicant or Appellant as the case may be.

The bank has provided detailed information on its website about the designated officers who have been tasked with providing information to the applicants.

One of the major stumbling blocks in the transparency and accountability of state's premier financial institution till now had been its exclusion from the ambit of the RTI Act and non-implementation of CVC guidelines.

The Governor administration last year decided to bring J&K Bank under the ambit of the RTI Act, like other PSUs. It said the bank should follow Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines and the state legislature.

The bank, however, refused to implement the Act.

In 2012, the State Information Commission had declared the bank as a ‘public authority’ under the RTI Act, entitling the people to seek information from it. The bank, however, got it stayed by the court. The stay is yet to be vacated.

But this year, after the government sacked the chairman of the J&K Bank and appointed an interim chairman, the board of directors of the bank decided to implement the J&K RTI Act-2009.

Only on June 11, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam had said the bank has no choice but to be under RTI as it is a government-owned bank.

"It is registered under the companies act as a government company. By the end of June, the bank will be brought under the RTI and CVC guidelines," he said.