Dimapur, July 26 (EMN): The Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) today expressed displeasure over the delay in the response from the state government with regard to its RTI application to the Office of the Chief Minister on April 12, 2016 seeking to know the contents of the recommendations made by the three member High Power Committee (HPC) report headed by former Supreme Court judge KH Sema 'to curb multiple taxation in the state'.
A press release issued by the "Information and Publicity Cell NPRAAF" stated that its RTI application was transferred by the "CMO to Home Department govt. of Nagaland on 12th May 2016"; and after much delay, the Home Dept. replied 'only about the expenditure incurred by the three member committee' to the tune of Rs 47,88,476 during the ten month time of writing the report.
The NPRAAD stated that the government has not revealed anything about the HPC recommendation to this day even after series of appearances and arguments between the NPRAAF and home department officials before the State Information Commission (SIC) for the 'final hearing'.
In this regard, the release stated that the NPRAAF and the home department, government of Nagaland were summoned by SIC for hearing on Feb. 16 2018 where the both parties placed their argument before the SIC.
"NPRAAF stick to its argument that, Right to Information (RTI) After the enactment of RTI Act, 2005 Right to Information is no more a constitutional right. Now, RTI is only a statuary legal right," the NPRAAF stated.
The groups, while asserting that information cannot be denied, stated that before the enactment of RTI Act 2005; RTI was part of Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India (Freedom of Speech and Expression), which a fundamental right.
However, 'there could not be any verdict by the SIC even on the said hearing date (Feb. 16 2018)', and therefore, the NPRAAF 'requested the home department to given in written its response on record', the release stated.
The NPRAAF stated that it "in queried N0 1. asked the Government to kindly produce true certified copies of the entire report and the recommendation of HPC on illegal/unabated taxation".
"NPRAAF in queried N0 5 asked, whether the Government of Nagaland has taken any step/action based on the report and recommendation submitted by HPC," the release added.
However, the release stated that the home department reiterated its earlier stance that 'since the report is a cabinet paper under sec 8 (1) (i) of RTI act 2005, "a copy of the report cannot be furnished at this stage as requested".
"The two question were finally responded in written by the Government on18 July 2018 after inordinate delay," the NPRAAF stated.
It also disclosed that the home department replied that 'the report is under examination', and therefore, no action can be initiated until final decision is taken by the cabinet.
In this connection the NPRAAF viewed the response of the state government with reference "to sec 18 (1) (i) as wrong understanding of the RTI Act, and is trying to dodge the question and nothing else".
It strongly asserted that the public has every right to know the recommendations made by the HPC 'as multiple taxation is a concern for all the Nagas and a huge public fund was spend for the committee'.
The group further stated that the government should not further delay in implementing the recommendations of the HPC report to curb multiple taxation in the state 'which is burdening the public as huge amount of public money was spent for the recommendations of the HPC report "otherwise the public will not believe Government lip service to curb illegal and multiple taxation".
