Forty years after he first visited the Valley, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah recalled his maiden arrival in Jammu and Kashmir as a greenhorn IAS officer riddled with doubts about why he was assigned to the state. Today, he is waiting to return to the Valley as an “elder” in the role of the state’s Right to Information chief to work for the new transparency law for Jammu and Kashmir, enacted this year.

“In 1969, I was very conscious of my identity as a Muslim. The wounds of Partition was still raw, and on one side was a country which felt that it was a spokesperson for Muslims, on the other, my country, reaching out to give a sense of secularity. This gave me an added sense of duty. Now, I feel like an elder who wants to help the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Habibullah said.

Though he is yet to put in his papers, Habibullah feels his work in Delhi is over, and he is needed more in the Valley.

“The new RTI law is a symbol from an authentic state government, a symbol which says that accountability is the key for a proper democratic system. The RTI will endeavour to help a Kashmiri know, for example, where the police are keeping a relative,” he says, adding that he has requested Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for a “free hand” in setting up the RTI mechanism in the state.

Habibullah is unhappy that the state RTI law is only applicable to Kashmiris and the application fee is Rs 50 while the same is only Rs 10 under the Central Act of 2005.

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