Jammu and Kashmir’s Central University has announced setting up of a Right to Information (RTI) Clinic on the campus in Nowgam near state's summer capital Srinagar. This was made possible following the efforts of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). The announcement was made at a one-day interactive workshop on the state’s RTI Act on July 24, 2017 organised by CHRI, New Delhi, in collaboration with Jammu and Kashmir (J and K) Right to Information (RTI) Movement and the Central University, Kashmir.  Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chairperson, CHRI was the Chief Guest at this event. Mr. Sanjoy Hazarika, Director, CHRI, spoke about the value of RTI for evidence-based research in academia. CHRI resource persons - Ms. Shikha Chhibbar and Mr. Venkatesh Nayak, gave presentations on the salient features of the J&K RTI Act and the case law that was developing around RTI across the country. More than 50 participants attended the event including faculty members and students. At the request of CHRI, the University’s Vice Chancellor Me’raj Ud Din Mir announced the setting up of an RTI Clinic comprising of senior students from the Department of Law. Faculty members will provide technical assistance to RTI applicants for submitting appeals and complaints. Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, Chairperson, J and K RTI Movement gave a presentation on the success stories of members of the movement who used RTI to improve governance and secure rightful entitlements for the disadvantaged segments of society. CHRI and J and K RTI Movement have been invited to conduct in-depth training programmes for the members of the RTI clinic in August-September, 2017, in order to enable them to start their work.

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