RAWALPINDI: The government of Punjab once again failed to provide transparent information to the citizens as the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) website is showing Latin language instead of English that was specifically made to visible the information of district government departments to public.

The website of district government is under construction from past two years and still did not arrive at its terminus that shows the sincerity and concern of provincial government to cater access to the information to its public, a citizen of Rawalpindi said. He said locals are still visiting the district government offices to get the needed information that should be open for public according to the law passed by provincial government for access to information.

In a reply to the information request filed by this citizen demanding the details of appointed public information officers at district departments the DCO Rawalpindi Sajid Zafar Dall said that all the information is given on the website of district government where the applicant visited the website and found no useful data or any information about any government department but some Latin language written words on it. The Punjab RTI law was passed to enable the citizen to access the information about the government department and hold public bodies accountable and ensure the transparency of government departments but still government seems to fail in implementing the law by letter and spirit in front of arduous bureaucracy. People are confronting difficulties in access to the information that points the question on the transparency and accountability of the government. According to the legislation passed by Punjab Assembly in December 2013 on Right to Information now every citizen has a right to get the desired information from any public department by simply filing the information request to the concern department that will provide the requested information to the applicant within 14 working days. Failure to provide the information within time or denial leads to two days of salary deduction for each day of delay or fine up to fifty thousand can be imposed as penalty under Punjab Transparency and Right to Information (RTI) law 2013.

January 16, 2015

Daily Patriot