SANDHAN

आरटीआई के बारे में नहीं जानते हम

2011-10-26T10:07:00.004+05:30

आप सूचना का अधिकार कानून का इस्तेमाल करते हैं? क्या आपको मालूम है कि आप अपने पास के डाक घर से केन्द्रीय सरकार के दफ्तरों में सूचना अधिकारियों को बिना किसी डाक खर्च के अपना आवेदन, प्रथम अपील और दूसरी अपील कर सकते हैं?
मेरा अपना आकलन है कि ये डाक घरों के जरिये मुफ्त में सूचनाएं मांगने का आवेदन पत्र भेज सकते हैं, यह जानकारी देश के 0.5 प्रतिशत लोगों को भी नहीं है. यह संसद जानती है. देश भर के 4707 डाकघर के लोग जानते हैं. लेकिन जिनके लिए सूचना का अधिकार कानून बनाया गया है, वे नहीं जानते.

लोकतंत्र में संचार व्यवस्था का अध्ययन करें तो आप मजे में यह तथ्य जान सकते हैं कि ढेर सारी और विकराल संचार व्यवस्था है लेकिन लोगों के पास जरूरी सूचनाएं नहीं भेजने के तरीके भी मौजूद है. संसद में आर्थिक सर्वेक्षण पेश करते हुए सरकार ने अपनी उपलब्धियों का आदतन एक खाका पेश किया. उसमें यह भी दावा किया गया ‘संचार विभाग ने 4707 केंद्रीय सहायक लोक सूचना अधिकारी बनाए हैं, जिनमें से देश की प्रत्येक तहसील में कम से कम एक अवश्य है.

कम्प्यूटरीकृत ग्राहक सेवा केंद्र के प्रभावी अधिकारी को विभाग के लिए केंद्रीय सहायक लोक सूचना अधिकारी के रूप में कार्य करने के लिए तथा उन केंद्रीय विभागों, संस्थानों की ओर से आरटीआई अनुरोध तथा अपील प्राप्त करने के लिए पहचाना गया है; जिन्होंने आरटीआई अधिनियम की धारा 5 (2) तथा 19 के अनुसरण में डाकघरों में यह सुविधा प्राप्त करने की सहमति दी है.

डाकघर में बनाए गए केंद्रीय लोक सूचना अधिकारी आरटीआई अधिनियम की धारा 19 की उपधारा (1) के अंतर्गत केंद्रीय सरकार के विभागों व संस्थानों के केंद्रीय सूचना अधिकारी, वरिष्ठ अधिकारी अथवा केंद्रीय सूचना आयोग को भेजने के लिए आरटीआई अनुरोध और अपील प्राप्त करते हैं.

सूचना का अधिकार कानून के बनने के बाद समीक्षा यह की जानी चाहिए कि इस कानून की जानकारी देश के कितने प्रतिशत लोगों तक पहुंच पाई है और जिन लोगों तक नहीं पहुंच पाई है, उन तक इस कानून को कैसे पहुंचाया जाए. दूसरी बात कि मांगे जाने पर सूचनाएं देने में विभाग व अधिकारी किस-किस तरह की अड़चनें खड़ी करते हैं और उन अड़चनों को दूर करने की पहल सरकार को करनी चाहिए थी. इसके लिए सरकार महज एक विज्ञापन जारी करे और सूचनार्थी (सूचना मांगने वाला) से अड़चनों व बाधाओं के बारे में जानकारी मांगे तो उसे सूचना के अधिकार कानून के लागू होने का सच पता चल जाएगा.

तीसरी बात कि सरकार को यह कोशिश करनी चाहिए थी कि यह कानून और कैसे ज्यादा मजबूत हो. सरकार को इस कानून का इस्तेमाल करने वालों का दायरा बढ़ाने के लिए इस पहलू पर विचार करना चाहिए था कि देश का एक बड़ा हिस्सा जो अपनी गरीबी के कारण इस कानून का इस्तेमाल नहीं कर पाता है, वह कैसे इसका इस्तेमाल करे? देश में गरीबी रेखा के नीचे की पहचान और उसे कार्ड देने का सरकार का एक अपना फंडा है, सूचना का अधिकार कानून उस फंडे को लांघने की जरूरत जाहिर करता है.

सूचना के अधिकार कानून की कई ऐसी धाराएं हैं, जो अब तक लागू नहीं की जा सकी हैं. इनमें विभागों व संस्थानों द्वारा सूचना के अधिकार कानून की धारा 4(1) के तहत कानून लागू होने के 120 दिनों के अंदर अपनी ओर से विभाग से जुड़ी सूचनाएं लोगों को बताने के लिए कहा गया था. लेकिन आप केवल विभागों और संस्थानों की वेबसाइट देख लें, आपको यह अंदाजा लग जाएगा कि सरकारी विभाग व संस्थान किस हद तक आदतन सूचनाएं छुपाने की कोशिश करते आ रहे हैं.

इससे आगे सूचना के अधिकार कानून के लिए बने केंद्रीय सूचना आयोग लगातार कमजोर होता जा रहा है. जो उसके तेवर कानून बनने के कुछ दिनों के बाद तक दिखे, अब वह अनुभवी व वफादार नौकरशाहों का जमघट के रूप में दिखने लगा है. लगता है कि सरकार की मंशा यह है कि भारी-भरकम मशीनरी का एक ढांचा खड़ा भी दिखे और वह काम भी न करे. सूचना आयोग ने अपनी स्थिति यह बना ली है कि मांगी गई सूचनाएं न देने का फैसला करने वाले अधिकारियों व संस्थानों को साल-साल भर का मौका सूचनाएं न देने के लिए मिल जाता है.

सूचना आयोग में दूसरी अपील पर सुनवाई अदालतों की तरह कई-कई महीने बाद होने लगी है. छोटी-मोटी तकनीकी खामियों के आधार पर अपीलों को खारिज किया जाने लगा है. सूचना आयोग सूचना न देने वाले संस्थानों व अधिकारियों के खिलाफ दंडात्मक कार्रवाई करने से या तो बचता है या फिर कार्रवाई नहीं कर पाता है. केंद्रीय सूचना आयोग के कुल निर्धारित पदों की संख्या में लगभग 50 प्रतिशत सूचना आयुक्तों के पद खाली हैं.

दरअसल, सूचना का अधिकार कानून को सरकार विज्ञापन की तरह इस्तेमाल करना चाहती है. वह केवल ‘शाइिनंग इंडिया’ की तरह दिखना चाहती है. इसीलिए वह अपनी उपलिब्धयों में इस कानून की तो गिनती करती है लेकिन इसकी जमीनी हकीकत से मुंह चुराती है. अभी तक इस कानून की पहुंच समाज के उस हिस्से तक ही हो पाई है, जो कानून का अपने हितों में इस्तेमाल करना जानता है. यह हिस्सा एक छोटे से मध्यम वर्ग और उच्च मध्यम वर्ग का है जो सत्तारूढ़ राजनीति व सरकारी दफ्तरों के इर्द गिर्द अपना व अपने जैसों का हित-अहित प्रभावित होते देखता है.

जाहिर सी बात है कि ऐसी स्थिति में जिस तरह की सूचनाएं मांगी जाएंगी, उससे सत्ताधारी पार्टी या पार्टयिां प्रभावित हो सकती हैं. प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह ने इस कानून को बाधा के रूप में पेश कर उन लोगों की इच्छाओं का सम्मान किया है जो इस कानून की वजह से अपना घाटा महसूस करते रहे हैं. प्रधानमंत्री जब कोई बात कहते हैं तो वह एक नीतिगत बात की तरह समाज में संप्रेषित होता है. लेकिन समाज में लोकतंत्र की चेतना अभी जिस स्तर पर पहुंच चुकी है, वहां सूचना के अधिकार जैसे कानून को कमजोर करने की कोई भी कोशिश राजनीतिक नुकसान के रूप में सामने आ सकती है.

इस तरह के कानून जब बनते हैं तो वह कई बार खुद को जख्म दे सकते हैं लेकिन लोकतंत्र में किसी कानून के सफल होने का मानदंड यह बनना चाहिए कि उसकी वजह से लोकतंत्र की चेतना का कितना विस्तार हुआ है. सूचना के अधिकार कानून को ज्यादा से ज्यादा उपयोगी बनाने की कोशिश, उसमें लोगों की ज्यादा भागीदारी से ही पूरी की जा सकती है.

केंद्रीय सूचना आयोग के लिए एक सूचना कार्यकर्ता सलाहकार समिति का भी गठन किया जाना चाहिए, जो सूत्रबद्ध तरीके से आयोग व सरकार को इस कानून के पूरी तरह लागू नहीं होने के छोटे-बड़े सभी अड़चनों की जानकारी दे सके.

रिश्वत देने में अग्रणी संगठन

2011-07-14T16:43:00.001+05:30

अक्सर भ्रष्टाचार के मुद्दे पर देश में गरमागरम बहस चलती रहती है किन्तु मैं अनुभव करता हूँ कि भ्रष्टाचार की बहस में से मौलिक बात गायब है | सोम प्रकाश के मामले में हमारे सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कहा है कि रिश्वत मात्र अनुचित काम को करने के लिए ही नहीं दी जाती है अपितु उचित कम को जल्दी करवाने के लिए भी दी जाती है क्योंकि समय ही धन है| विवेकाधिकार भ्रष्टाचार को जन्म देती है|इससे निष्कर्ष निकलता है कि भ्रष्टाचार को कम करने के लिए समय सारिणी निर्धारित कर व विवेकाधिकार समाप्त कर इस बुराई पर नियंत्रण पाया जा सकता है|

दूसरी ओर देखें तो हमें ज्ञात होगा कि व्यापारी एवं उद्योगपति वर्ग ने अपने हितों की रक्षा के लिए संगठन बना रखें हैं| विभिन्न प्रकार की कर चोरी , बिजली चोरी आदि के मामलों में भी ये संगठन अपने सदस्यों का बचाव करते हैं| सदस्यों से मासिक या वार्षिक वसूली की जाती है जो संगठन के पदाधिकारियों द्वारा वाणिज्यिककर , आयकर , उत्पाद शुल्क ,चुंगी , बिजली विभाग, खाद्य सुरक्षा आदि के अधिकारियों को भेंट स्वरूप दे दी जाती है और एवज में इन अपराधियों को अभयदान दे दिया जाता है| किसी वस्तु विशेष पर कर आदि में मंत्रालय या सचिवालय स्तर से राहत के लिए भी यही सुगम मार्ग अपनाया जाता है| रिश्वत के इस खेल में लेने देने वाले दोनों पक्षकार सुरक्षित रहते हैं| सदस्यों को व्यक्तिगत मोलभाव नहीं करना पडता और अधिकारियों को वसूली के लिए जगह जगह नहीं जाना पडता है| व्यापारी एवं उद्योगपति वर्ग द्वारा दी गयी इन भेंटों को वस्तु/सेवा की कीमत में जोड़कर आम जनता से वसूल कर लिया जाता है|इस प्रकार रिश्वत का अंतिम भार जनता पर ही पडता है |
इसी प्रकार परिवहन के मामलों में भी ऑटो चालक अपने संगठनों के माध्यम से स्थानीय ट्रेफिक पुलिस को हफ्ता देते हैं| बड़े परिवहन संचालक संगठन भी परिवहन एवं पुलिस को एक मुस्त अभयदान शुल्क देते हैं|ट्रक ड्राईवर अपने पास डायरी रखते हैं जिसमें समय समय पर पुलिस को रास्ते में दी जाने वाली रकम का पुलिस के हाथ से ही इंद्राज करवाकर हिसाब मालिक को सौंप देते हैं| ऐसा नहीं है कि भ्रष्ट लोक सेवक पकडे ही नहीं जाते हों किन्तु सशक्त व प्रभावी न्यायिक व्यवस्था के अभाव में वे दण्ड से बच जाते हैं |

चूँकि अपराधियों को दण्ड देना न्याय तंत्र का कार्य है और वह अभी तक इसमें अपेक्षा तक सफल नहीं है| अतः देश के गुणीजनों व प्रबुद्ध वर्ग से मेरा प्रश्न है कि जब तक देश में यह विकलांग न्याय प्रणाली है और रिश्वत देने वाले संगठन कार्यरत हैं तब तक भ्रष्टाचार पर नियंत्रण का कौनसा मार्ग है और कोई भी लोकपाल कानून कितना कारगर होगा इसका भी सहज अनुमान लगाया जा सकता है|भ्रष्टाचार पर नियंत्रण के लिए मात्र लोकपाल ही नहीं अपितु देश की न्यायिक व्यवस्था में आमूलचूल परिवर्तन से मौलिक सुधार कर इसे ब्रिटिश काल से निकालकर विश्व स्तरीय बनाने की महती आवश्कता है |

गोरे लोगों के काले कानूनों की मजबूत बेडियाँ

2011-07-09T01:53:00.001+05:30

कानून और न्याय व्यवस्था का वैश्वीकरण

हमारे देश में विभिन्न सेवाओं के मानकीकरण व वैश्वीकरण की बात समय समय पर उठती रही है . किन्तु शताब्दियों पुराने अंग्रेजी कानूनों तथा उनके अधीन स्थापित न्याय व्यवस्था में कोई मौलिक परिवर्तन करने की इच्छाशक्ति का हमारे नेतृत्व में अभाव रहा है . नए मौलिक कानून नहीं बना कर शताब्दियों पुराने कानूनों में बार बार संशोधन करना समयातीत जीर्णशीर्ण कपडे की मरम्मत कर काम चलाने के समान है .जो कानून जिस देश , काल ,परिस्थितियों और शासन प्रणाली के लिए उपयुक्त थे वे सदैव उपयुक्त नहीं हो सकते . वैसे भी साम्राज्यवाद एकचक्रिय व विस्तारवादी धारणा पर आधारित है जबकि लोकतंत्र इसके विपरीत जनकल्याण के दर्शन की उपज है .आम व्यक्ति को प्रभावित करने वाले हमारे विद्यमान कानूनों की समसामयिक विदेशी कानूनों से तुलना करें तो हमें ज्ञात होगा कि हम सामान्य कानून तथा न्याय व्यवस्था में अंतर्राष्ट्रीय स्तर से बहुत पीछे हैं .फिर भी पूंजीपति वर्ग को प्रभावित करने वाले आयकर व कंपनी अधिनयम जैसे कानूनों में प्रतिवर्ष अनेक परिवर्तन किये जाते रहते हैं. हमारे लोक सेवक तथा न्यायालय आज भी साम्राज्यवादी अधिकारों का प्रयोग करते हैं जबकि जनता अभी भी जनतांत्रिक अधिकारों से वंचित है .यह सब इसलिए संभव है कि हमने अभी तक नए कानून बनाकर लोक सेवकों को दायित्व बोध नहीं कराया है तथा उनकी मनमानी स्वयंभू प्रक्रियाएं जारी हैं.
आज स्वतंत्रता के 64 वर्ष बाद भी राजपुरुष लोक सेवकों के अधिकारों में कोई कटौती अथवा दायित्वों में कोई बढ़ोतरी नहीं की गयी है जिससे यह सन्देश मिलता है कि हमारा लोकतंत्र अभी भी लोकसेवकों के बंधक है .विधि निर्माण में अत्यंत चतुराईपूर्वक कूटनीतिक शब्दजाल का प्रयोग किया जाता है ताकि किसी सरकारी सेवक की कोई जिम्मेदारी नहीं बने . यद्यपि मणिपुर राज्य की लोकप्रिय सरकार ने लोक सेवक दायित्व अधिनियम ,2006 बनाकर लोक सेवकों का दायित्व निर्धारित करने का प्रावधान किया है और अन्य सभी राज्य सरकारों व केन्द्र सरकार को ऐसा कानून बनाकर स्थित पर नियंत्रण पाना चाहिए .

हमारी व्यवस्था में किसी भी अधिकारी को दायित्वधीन बनाये जाने से परहेज किया गया है . हमारे यहाँ मुख्य न्यायाधिपति को कहीं भी जिम्मेदार नहीं बताया गया है . इंगलैंड में न्यायालय अधिनियम,2003 की प्रथम धारा में ही कहा गया है कि लोर्ड चांसलर (सुप्रीम कोर्ट का मुखिया) न्यायालयों के प्रभावी एवं दक्षतापूर्वक संचालन सुनिश्चित करने के कर्तव्याधीन है तथा वह अपने कर्तव्य निष्पादन की रिपोर्ट प्रतिवर्ष दोनों सदनों के समक्ष रखेगा व धारा 58 के अनुसार न्यायालयों के लिए वहाँ अलग से स्वतंत्र निरीक्षणालय स्थापित है . हमारी प्रणाली में उच्च न्यायालयों के न्यायाधीशों को अधीनस्थ न्यायालयों पर न्यायिक एवं निरीक्षक दोनों वरिष्ठता प्राप्त है अतः निरीक्षण प्रणाली का कोई उपयोग व महत्व नहीं रह जाता है .किसी भी निकाय के सुचारू कार्यरत होने के लिए निरीक्षण एवं प्रशासनिक इकाई का अलग अलग होना आवश्यक है. निरीक्षण हमेशा अचानक होना चाहिए तथा पूर्व नियोजित निरीक्षण से स्वयं निरिक्षण का औचित्य समाप्त हो जाता है . न्यायपालिका की स्वतंत्रता के लिए यह भी समान रूप से आवश्यक है कि इंग्लॅण्ड की भांति स्वयं न्यायपालिका का प्रशासनिक खंड, कम से कम हाई कोर्ट और सुप्रीम कोर्ट स्तर पर, न्यायिक कृत्यों से अलग एवं स्वतंत्र हो .यदि एक ही अधिकारी के पास न्यायिक एवं प्रशासनिक दोनों शक्तियां केंद्रित हों तो उनके प्रयोग पर प्रश्न चिन्ह लग सकता है .

इंग्लॅण्ड में आपराधिक प्रक्रिया नियम 2010 के नियम 3.2 के अंतर्गत अदालत के कर्तव्य का उल्लेख करते हुए कहा गया है कि मामले की शीघ्र प्रगति के लिए एक समय सारिणी बनायीं जायेगी दूसरी ओर हमारे यहाँ स्वयम्भू प्रक्रिया अपनाकर मामले को अनिश्चित काल के लिए स्थगित करने हेतु “उचित समय पर” (Due Course) में डाल दिया जाता है जबकि ऐसे अस्पष्ट शब्दों का प्रयोग किसी नियम में नहीं है और संविधान के अनुसार किसी भी न्यायालय को सरकार की सहमति के बिना/कानून से असंगत प्रक्रियागत नियम बनाए का कोई अधिकार नहीं है .इस प्रकार संसद द्वारा बनाये गए कानूनों को भी प्रशासनिक आदेश की आड़ में निष्प्रभावी बनाना हमारे न्यायतंत्र के लिए बांयें हाथ का काम है . दूसरी ओर उस “उचित समय पर” में डाल दिये गए प्रकरण से बाद में दर्ज प्रकरणों में भी कुछ अपवित्र कारणों से पहले निर्णय दे दिए जाते हैं. न्यायालयों द्वारा इस प्रकार अनुच्छेद 14 द्वारा गारंटीकृत विधि के समक्ष समानता के अधिकार का खुला उल्लंघन किया जाता है और ऊपरी न्यायालय, जिन पर संविधान (अनुच्छेद 227)तथा दण्ड प्रक्रिया संहिता(धारा 483)के अंतर्गत पर्यवेक्षण का दायित्व डाला गया है, मूकदर्शक बने रहते हैं.
विधि का अच्छा शासन कहता है कि आपवादिक परिस्थितियों को छोड़कर प्रकरणों का निपटान उनके दर्ज होने के वरीयता क्रम में हो .हमारी न्यायिक व्यवस्था में जवाबदारी का पूर्णतया अभाव है व पुनरीक्षण तथा मूल मामले दोनों के निपटान में समान समय लिया जाता है जबकि दोनों के लिए वांछित समय व श्रम में 1 व 30 का अनुपात हाई कोर्ट द्वारा माना गया है . वकीलों द्वारा स्थगन की मांग इसके लिए कोई स्वीकार्य बहाना नहीं हो सकता क्योंकि न्याय प्रशासन न्यायाधीशों का कार्य है जिसके लिए उन्हें जनता के धन में से भुगतान किया जाता है ,न कि वकीलों का और वे इसके लिए जिम्मेदार हैं.

हमारे न्यायालयों की प्रक्रिया खुली होकर भी गुप्त है क्योंकि एक गैर पक्षकार को किसी मामले का निरीक्षण आपवादिक परिस्थितियों में ही अनुमत है जबकि अमेरिका में न्यायिक अभिलेख इन्टरनेट पर ही उपलब्ध है और इंग्लॅण्ड में सुप्रीम कोर्ट नियम 2009 के नियम 39 (3) में प्रावधान है कि रजिस्ट्री द्वारा धारित सभी प्रलेख प्रेस अथवा जन सामान्य द्वारा निरीक्षण किये जा सकेंगे किन्तु राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा, जन हित अथवा वाणिज्यक गोपनीयता के कारणों से रजिस्ट्रार मना कर सकेगा . अर्थात हमारे यहाँ निरीक्षण अपवाद है जबकि इंग्लॅण्ड में मनाही आपवादिक मामलों में ही की जा सकती है . अमेरिका में सुप्रीम कोर्ट की कार्यवाहियों की साथ साथ इलेक्ट्रोनिक रिकॉर्डिंग होती है तथा वह इन्टरनेट पर भी उपलब्ध रहती है .इंगलैंड की न्यायप्रणाली में बड़ी पारदर्शिता है तथा वहाँ मात्र सरकारी रिपोर्टें ही नहीं अपितु निजी संगठनों द्वारा किये गए सम्बंधित सर्वेक्षणों के विवरण स्वयं न्याय मंत्रालय की वेबसाइट पर उपलब्ध है. इंग्लॅण्ड में सूचना के अधिकार को पर्याप्त महत्व दिया गया है तथा यह न्याय मंत्रालय का विषय है . इंग्लॅण्ड में सुप्रीम कोर्ट नियम 2009 एक सरल 19 पृष्ठीय प्रलेख है जबकि हमारे सुप्रीम कोर्ट नियम ,1966 जटिल 200 पृष्ठीय प्रलेख है .
हमारे यहाँ विधि आयोग मात्र एक राजकीय आदेश से स्थापित निकाय है जिसके दायित्व , अधिकार या उपयोग किसी संसदीय अधिनियम द्वारा परिभाषित नहीं हैं .स्मरण रहे कि वर्ष 1964 में स्थापित हमारा केन्द्रीय सतर्कता आयोग भी वर्ष 2003 से पूर्व इसी प्रकार बिना संसदीय कानून के कार्यरत निकाय रहा है . हमारे यहाँ विधि आयोग, राष्ट्रीय पुलिस आयोग आदि अपनी रिपोर्टें सम्बंधित मंत्रालय को प्रस्तुत करके अपने कर्त्तव्य की इतिश्री कर लेते हैं . जब तक शासन में पारदर्शिता अपनाते हुए इन रिपोर्टों पर की गयी कार्यवाही , मानी अथवा न मानी गयी सिफारिशों से संसद के माध्यम से जनता को अवगत नहीं कराया जाता तब तक इन कमेटियों , आयोगों पर होने वाला व्यय जनता के दृष्टिकोण से अपव्यय है और ये रिपोर्टें रद्दी कागज के अतिरिक्त और कुछ नहीं हो सकती .इसके विपरीत इंग्लॅण्ड में विधि आयोग 1965 के विधि आयोग अधिनियम द्वारा स्थापित एक निकाय है तथा धारा 3 क के अनुसार विधि आयोग के प्रस्तावों के मानने के सम्बन्ध में संसद के दोनों सदनों के समक्ष रिपोर्टें प्रस्तुत की जाती हैं. हमारे देश में भी संसदीय अधिनयम बनाकर विभिन्न कमेटियों एवं आयोगों की कार्यप्रणाली पर नियंत्रण रखने की आवश्यकता है .इनके द्वारा प्रस्तुत रिपोर्टों पर सम्बंधित मंत्रालय द्वारा 30 दिन के भीतर प्रस्तावों के मानने के सम्बन्ध में संसद के दोनों सदनों के समक्ष रिपोर्टें प्रस्तुत की जानी चाहिए

SANDHAN: Hindi Movie - सूचना का अधिकार - Right to Information

2011-03-06T19:54:00.000+05:30

SANDHAN: Hindi Movie - सूचना का अधिकार - Right to Information

सूचना का अधिकार (RTI) वर्तमान स्थिति एवं चुनौतियाँ

2011-02-20T16:00:00.003+05:30

सरकार, सरकारी योजनाएँ और तमाम सरकारी गतिविधियाँ हमारे दैनिक जीवन में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाती हैं । आम आदमी से जुड़े कई मामले प्रशासन में बैठे भ्रष्ट, लापरवाह या अक्षम कर्मचारियों/अधिकारियों के कारण फलीभूत होने के बजाय कागज का पुलिंदा बनकर रह जाती है । सन्‌ १९४७ में मिली कल्पित आजादी के बाद से अब तक हम मजबूर थे । व्यवस्था को कोसने के सिवाय
कुछ नहीं हैं, क्योंकि आज हमारे पास ‘सूचना का अधिकार’ (RTI) नामक औजार है, जिसका प्रयोग करके हम सरकारी विभागों में अपने रूके हुए काम आसानी से करवा सकते हैं । इस हेतु हमें ‘सूचना का अधिकार अधिनियम २००५’ की बारिकियों को ध्यानपूर्वक समझना और समझाना होगा । सामाजिक क्षेत्र में यह कानून ग्राह्य हो, इसके लिए बुद्धिजीवियों, सामाजिक कार्यकर्ताओं, महिलाओं, युवाओं के विशेष रूप से जागरूक किए जाने की आवश्यकता है । भगत सिंह ने क्रांति को जनता के हक में सामाजिक एवं राजनीतिक बदलाव के रूप में देखा था । सूचना का अधिकार (RTI) को हल्के अंदाज में न लेकर एक बड़े आंदोलन के रूप में देखें, सोंचे एवं मूल्यांकन करें तभी वास्तव में इसकी सार्थकता सिद्ध होगी । ६३ साल पूर्व मिली आजादी वास्तव में सत्ता के अदला-बदली की औपचरैकता भर बनकर रह गई । शोषितों का शोषण नहीं रूक बल्कि आम आदमी की परेशानियाँ और बढ गई । आज ज्यादातर लोग प्रशासन/व्यवस्था को मन ही मन गाली देकर अपनी भड़ास निकल लेते हैं, परन्तु क्या इससे कुछ समाधान मिल सकता है । समाधान हेतु व्यक्‍ति को व्यवस्था परिवर्तन का अंग बनकर उस दिशा में सक्रिय भूमिका निभाने हेतु तत्पर होना पड़ेगा । क्या है सूचना का अधिकार अधिनियम २००५? ःइस अधिनियम के तहत आवेदन करके हम किसी भी विभाग से कोई भी जानकारी माँग सकते हैं और अधिकारी/विभाग माँगी गई सूचना को उपलब्ध करवाने के लिए बाध्य है, बशर्ते वह सूचना माँगने के तरीके की शैली में हो । यही बाध्यता/जबाबदेही ना केवल पारदर्शिता की गारंटी है, बल्कि भ्रष्टाचार के उन्मूलन का तथ्य भी निहित है । वास्तव में यह अधिनियम आम आदमी के लिए आशा की किरण नहीं बल्कि आत्मविश्‍वास भी लेकर आया है । इस औजार रुपी अधिनियम का प्रयोग करके हम अपनी आधी-अधूरी आजादी को संपूर्ण आजादी बना सकते हैं । इस संपूर्ण आजादी को पाने के लिए अधिनियम
को गहराई से अध्ययन कर ज्यादा से ज्यादा लोगों को जागरूक कर संपूर्ण क्रांति का शंखनाद करना पड़ेगा । सूचना का अधिकार करेगा क्रांति का शंखनाद ःभगत सिंह ने कहा था- हमारी लड़ाई, हमारी कमजोरियों के खिलाफ है । हम ऐसे उज्जवल भविष्य में विश्‍वास करते हैं जिसमें प्रत्येक व्यक्‍ति को पूर्ण शांति और स्वतंत्रता का अवसर मिल सके । क्रांति की तलवार विचारों की सान पर तेज होती है और विद्रोह तो सिर्फ मालिकों के परिवर्तन द्वारा सड़ाध को ही आगे बढ़ाते हैं । लोगों के परस्पर लड़ने से रोकने के लिए वर्ग चेतना की जरूरत है । क्रांति एक ऐसा करिश्‍मा है, जिससे प्रकृति भी स्नेह करती है, क्रांति बिना सोची-समझी हत्याओं और आगजनी की दरिन्दगी भरी मुहिम नहीं है और न ही क्रांति मायूसी से पैदा हुआ दर्शन ही है । वास्तव में भगत सिंह के विचारों को जीवन में आत्मसात कर क्रियान्वित किए बिना क्रांति संभव नहीं । वैचारिक क्रांति/आंदोलन को धार देने के साथ-साथ उस हेतु समयबद्ध कार्यक्रम व दूरदर्शी योजना बनानी होगी तभी हम सफल हो सकते हैं और अपने अधिकारों को पा सकते हैं । दूसरे के कंधों पर बंदूक रखकर चलाने के बजाय हमें स्वयं को प्रशिक्षित करना चाहिए । जिंदगी के आम जरूरत की तरह आगे आनेवाले समय में सूचना का अधिकार (RTI) भी एक महत्वपूर्ण आवश्यकता की श्रेणी में आ जाएगी । सामाजिक परिवर्तन सदा ही सुविधा संपन्‍न लोगों के दिलों में खौफ पैदा करता रहा है । आज सूचना का अधिकार धीरे-धीरे ही सही परन्तु लगातार सफलता की ओर बढ़ रहा है । पुरानी व्यवस्था से सुविधाएँ भोगनेवाला तबका भी इस अधिनियम का पैनापन खत्म करने की कोशिश में प्रारम्भ से ही रहा है । कुछ सूचना आयुक्‍तों का रवैए से इस कानून का बंटाधार होने
की आशंका भी प्रबल हो गयी है । सूचना का अधिकार से जुड़े हुए कार्यकत्ताओं का उत्पीड़न अभी भी जारी है और केन्द्रीय सूचना आयोग, केन्द्र एवं राज्य सरकार उन कार्यकर्त्ताओं को पूर्णसुरक्षा देने, बेवजह तंग होने से बचाने में असमर्थ है । इस हेतु उनकी कोई नीति/नियमावली ही नहीं है । कई महीनों इंतजार के बाद भी माँगी गई सूचनाएँ नहीं मिलती या फिर अधूरी और भ्रामक मिलती है । उसके बाद भी यदि कोई आवेदक, सूचना आयोग में जाने की हिम्मत भी करता है, तब भी कई आयुक्‍त तो प्रशासन के खिलाफ कोई कार्रावाई नहीं करते । स्थिति ऐसी है कि हम तमाम कोशिशों के बावजूद आज भी उसी जगह खड़े है, जहाँ कई दशक पहले खड़े थे । क्रांतिकारियों की कुर्बानियाँ बेकार हो रही है जिनके लिए आजाद हिंदुस्तान से आजादी के बाद वाला हिंदुस्तान ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण था । क्या उन क्रांतिकारियों को दी गई यातनाएँ नहीं झुका पाई? हमारा उत्पीड़न या कोई भी असफलता क्या हमारे इरादों को तोड़ सकती है, यह यक्षप्रश्न आज हमारे समक्ष खड़ा है ? सूचना का अधिकार से जुड़े कार्यकर्त्ताओं को इस अधिकार को और अधिक मजबूती से प्रयोग करने एवं इसके पूर्ण सशक्‍तिकरण गेतु संगठित एवं आंदोलित होना चाहिए । देश हमारा है, सरकार भी हमारी है, इसलिए अपने घर को साफ रखने की जिम्मेवारी भी हम सबकी है । इसलिए हमें अपने अधिकार की रक्षा हेतु अपने कर्तव्यों का पूर्ण पालन करना चाहिए । क्या है (RTI) की कमियाँ?पुरानी कार्य-संस्कृति, पुरानी सोंच, प्रशासनिक उदासीनता एवं बाबूशाही शैली में कार्य करनेवाले लोगों में इस एक्ट को लेकर काफी बेचैनी है, और इस तरह के लोग (RTI) को अंदर ही अंदर को सटे रहते हैं । इसके कारण ७० प्रतिशत आवेदकों को ३० दिनों में कोई सूचना नहीं मिली । यदि मिली भी तो ३० प्रतिशत को ही सूचना मिली और वह भी गलत, अपूर्ण या भ्रामक । आरटीआई में ऐसा कोई मैकेनिज्म ही नहीं बनाया गया जिससे यह पता चल सके कि किस आवेदक को सूचना मिली या नहीं मिली और नाही संबंधित विभाग । सेक्शन माँगी गई सूचना के जबाब की प्रतिलिपि ही आरटीआई सेल में देने की नैतिक जिम्मेदारी ही पूरी करते हैं । आरटीआई सेल में कर्मचारियों की भयंकर कमी है । आरटीआई के तहत आवेदकों का ढेर लगता जा रहा है, परन्तु कर्मचारियों की संख्या बढ़ाने हेतु प्रशासन का रवैया उदासीन है, जो गंभीर एवं सोचनीय है । आरटीआई के सूखी सीट पर आने के लिए कर्मचारी तैयार ही नही होते और जो कर्मचारी इस सेल में आने के लिए उत्सव भी हैं उन्हें विभिन्‍न कारणों से यहाँ लगाया ही नहीं जाता । जन सूचना अधिकारियों के समक्ष काम का अत्यधिक बोझ है । सूचना अधिकारियों को अपने दैनिक कार्य के साथ-साथ आरटीआई का काम भी देखना पड़ता है और इसी दोहरे बोझ की वजह से आरटीआई का कार्य प्रभावित होता है । ज्यादातर विभागों में आरटीआई सेल में कोई कोऑर्डिनेटर ही नहीं है, जिससे यह सुनिश्‍चित हो सके कि आवेदक को ३० दिनों के भीतर और सही सूचना प्राप्त हुई अथवा नहीं । क्या इस ओर प्रशासन/सरकार की नींद कभी टूटेगी या ऐसी ही चलेगा?

सूचना का अधिकार कानून की विशेषता :१. सूचना का अधिकार के तहत जमा किए गए आवेदक का उत्तर ३० दिनों के अंदर देना आवश्यक है अन्यथा प्रतिदिन की देरी के हिसाब से २५० रू० मात्र का जुर्माना देना पड़ सकता है । २. इस कानून के तहत आप सरकारी निर्माण कार्यों का मुआयना भी कर सकते हैं । ३. अब आप सरकारी निर्माण में प्रयोग की गई चीजों का नमूना भी माँग सकते हैं।४.किस अधिकारी ने फाईल पर क्या लिखा है, कि जानकारी भी प्राप्त कर सकते हैं अर्थात्‌ इस अधिकार का प्रयोग करके आप फाईल नोटिंग्स की प्रतिलिपि भी ले सकते हैं ।
शिकायत भी कम नहीं : १. आवेदकों को सूचना का अधिकार के तहत आवेदन जमा करवाने तक के लिए भी संघर्ष करना पड़ रहा है ।२. सूचना आयोग में कानून का कड़ाई से पालन नहीं करने से सरकारी अफसर अपनी मनमानी कर रहे हैं । छोटे-मोटे मामलों में तो सूचनाएँ मिल भी जाती है परन्तु नीतिगत मसलों, बड़ी योजनाओं या फिर जहाँ किसी भ्रष्टाचार का अंदेशा हो तो सरकारी अधिकारी चुप्पी साध लेते हैं । ३. सूचना का अधिकार का प्रचार-प्रसार स्वयंसेवी संस्थाओं या फिर कुछ कार्यकर्ताओं द्वारा ही किया जा रहा है । सरकार अपनी ओर से इस कानून के प्रचार की कोई जिम्मेवारी नहीं निभा रही है । सरकार इस अधिकार के प्रचार-प्रसार में कोई रूचि नहीं ले रही है । उदाहरणस्वरूप २००६-०७ के दौरान प्रिंट मीडिया को १०९ करोड़ रूपया और इलेक्ट्रानिक मीडिया को १०० करोड़ रूपया का विज्ञापन किया गया परन्तु उनमें से एक भी विज्ञापन सूचना का अधिकार अधिनियम २००५ के लिए नहीं था । ४. इस अधिनियम के तहत तमाम सरकारी विभागों को जनसूचना अधिकारी तो नियुक्‍त करवा दिए परन्तु सूचना अधिकारियों को आवश्यक सुविधाएँ नहीं दी । कई विभागों में तो आरटीआई के बारे में प्रशिक्षण भी नहीं दी गई है । कहीं-कहीं आरटीआई सेल को कमरा भी उपलब्ध कराया गया है । ५. सूचना आयोग में भी अदालतों की तरह केसों का ढेर लगता जा रहा है । किसी केस की सुनवाई जल्दी नहीं हो पा रही है । वास्तव में सूचना आयोगों में भी पर्याप्त संख्या में न तो आयुक्‍त हैं न आवश्यक सुविधाएँ । ६. कई दागदार व्यक्‍तियों को भी सूचना आयुक्‍त/सूचना अधिकारी बना दिया गया है । यदि उन्हें मौका मिला तो इस कानून को तहस-नहस कर देंगे । ७. कई सूचना आयुक्‍त तो न्याय की सामान्य प्रक्रिया तक नहीं जानते । न्याय करने के लिए दोनों पक्षों की सुनवाई आवश्यक है परन्तु आयुक्‍त तो सिर्फ आवेदक को ही बुलाकर कुछ ही मिनटों में सुनवाई पूरी कर देते हैं । कभी-कभी तो आवेदक के खिलाफ भी फैसला कर डालते हैं ।
कैसे करें आरटीआई आवेदन :-१. सादा कागज पर ही आवेदन करें ।२. नकद, बैंक ड्राफ्ट, बैंकर्स चेक या पोस्टल ऑर्डर से शुल्क जमा करें । जो भी बैक ड्राफ्ट, बैकर्स चेक या पोस्टल बनवाएँ उन पर उस जनसूचना अधिकारी का नाम हो जिससे सूचना माँगी जाय । ३. आवेदन-पत्र संबंधित जन सूचना अधिकारी को स्वयं या डाक द्वारा भेजा जा सकता है । ४. आवेदनकर्ता को सूचना माँगने का कारण बताना जरूरी नहीं है । ५. यदि सूचना माँगने वाला व्यक्‍ति गरीबी रेखा से नीचे गुजर-बसर कर रहा है तो उसे कोई शुल्क नहीं देना होगा, लेकिन उसे गरीबी रेखा के नीचे रहने का प्रमाणपत्र की छायाप्रति लगानी होगी । ६. कोई भी व्यक्‍ति ग्राम पंचायत से लेकर राष्ट्रपति महोदय तक किसी ही सरकारी कार्यालय से किसी भी अभिलेख, सलाह, प्रेस विज्ञप्ति, आदेश, लॉगबुक, कान्ट्रैक्ट, रिपोर्ट आँकड़े, माजल आदि की सूचना प्राप्त कर सकता है । ७. यदि ३० दिनो के भीतर सूचना नहीं मिलती है तो आपको अप्रील अधिकारी के पास (जो उसी विभाग का वरिष्ठ अधिकारी होगा) प्रथम अपील दाखिल कर सकते हैं । ८. यदि प्रथम अपील करने के ३० दिनों तक भी सूचना नहीं मिले तो संबंधित सूचना आयोग में ९० दिनों के भीतर दूसरी अपील कर सकते हैं ।

कैसे करें शिकायत/ अपील :-१. यदि आवेदनकर्ता को किसी भी आधार पर कोई सूचना देने से मना किया जाता है या ३० दिनों के भीतर सूचना नहीं मिलती है तो प्रथम अपील अधिकारी के पास शिकायर/अपील की जा सकती है ।२. यदि आवेदनकर्ता प्रथम अपील अधिकारी के निर्णय से भी असंतुष्ट हैं तो आवेदनकर्त्ता राज्य सूचना आयोग के समक्ष द्वितीय अपील कर सकता है । ३. यदि आवेदनकर्ता को सूचना अधिकारी का नाम नहीं बताया जाता है या फिर आवेदन लेने से ही मना किया जाता है तो आवेदक राज्य सूचना आयोग के पास शिकायत कर सकता है । ४. यदि आवेदनकर्त्ता को लगता है कि उससे माँगा गया शुल्क अविश्‍वसनीय या मिथ्या है तो भी सूचना आयोग से शिकायत की जा सकती है । ५. यदि आप साक्षर नहीं है या शारीरिक रूप में अक्षम हैं जो जनसूचना अधिकारी की बाध्यता है कि वह आपकी मदद करे । ६. यदि जन सूचना अधिकारी की लापरवाही की वजह से आपको कोई हानि हुई हो अथवा बार-बार सूचना आयोग के पास जाना पड़ा हो तो आप व्यय-भार की भरपाई की माँग करें । केंन्द्रीय सूचना आयोग ने इसी तरह के कुछ मामलों में आवेदकों को हरजाना दिलवाया है ।
नोट : ऐसी कोई भी जानकारी देश की संप्रभुता, अखंडता एवं सुरक्षा को प्रभावित करती हो, विधायिका या संसद के विशेषाधिकार का हनन करें या धारा-८ के अंतर्गत आती हो, ऐसी सूचना नहीं दी जा सकती है ।

१९६२ की लड़ाई के लिए पंड़ित नेहरू जिम्मेदार

2011-02-20T15:53:00.002+05:30

प्रधानमंत्री जवाहरलाल नेहरू ने 1 जुलाई 1954 को ही (भारत-चीन) सीमा पर बातचीत के दरवाजे बंद कर दिए थे। यह बात ए जी नूरानी की नई किताब में कही गई है। पुस्तक के मुताबिक नेहरू ने न केवल बातचीत के दरवाजे बंद कर दिए थे बल्कि 1960 में भारत दौरे पर आए और विवाद को समाप्त करने को तैयार चाउ एन लाइ को टका सा जवाब दे दिया था। इन दोनों कारकों ने 1962 के भारत-चीन युद्ध की नींव डाल दी।

लीगल मामलों के एक्सपर्ट ए.जी. नूरानी सरहद से जुड़े मसलों के अपने अध्ययन के लिए भी जाने जाते हैं। नूरानी ने इस पुस्तक में 17 पैरा मेमोरेंडम को उद्धृत किया है जिसमें नेहरू ने कहा है,'हमारी अब तक की नीति और चीन से हुआ समझौता दोनों के आधार पर यह सीमा सुनिश्चित मानी जानी चाहिए। ऐसी जो किसी के साथ भी बातचीत के लिए खुली नहीं है। बहस के कुछ बेहद छोटे मसले हो सकते हैं लेकिन वे भी हमारी ओर से नहीं उठाए जाने चाहिए।'

इंडिया-चाइना बाउंडरी प्रॉब्लम 1846-1947: हिस्ट्री एंड डिप्लोमैसी' नाम की इस पुस्तक में बताया गया है कि भारत ने अपनी तरफ से ऑफिशल मैप में बदलाव कर दिया। 1948 और 1950 के नक्शों में पश्चिमी (कश्मीर) और मध्य सेक्टर (उत्तर प्रदेश) के जो हिस्से अपरिभाषित सरहद के रूप में दिखाए गए थे, वे इस बार गायब थे। 1954 के नक्शे में इनकी जगह साफ लाइन दिखाई गई थी।' लेखक ने कहा है कि 1 जुलाई 1954 का यह निर्देश 24 मार्च 1953 के उस फैसले पर आधारित था जिसके मुताबिक सीमा के सवाल पर नई लाइन तय की जानी थी। किताब में कहा गया है,'यह फैसला दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण था। पुराने नक्शे जला दिए गए। एक पूर्व विदेश सचिव ने इस लेखक को बताया था कि कैसे एक जूनियर ऑफिसर होने के नाते खुद उन्हें भी उस मूर्खतापूर्ण कवायद का हिस्सा बनना पड़ा था।'

सौ. नभाटा।

Hindi Movie - सूचना का अधिकार - Right to Information

2011-02-05T10:58:00.001+05:30

SANDHAN: आत्महत्या का पाप

2011-02-05T10:28:00.000+05:30

SANDHAN: आत्महत्या का पाप

आत्महत्या का पाप

2011-02-05T10:25:00.002+05:30

तंत्र-मंत्र, टीका-चंदन, बाबा-बैरागी के बाद अब किसानी आत्महत्या के पाप-पुण्य की व्याख्या की है भाजपा सरकार के प्रवचनकारों ने. मध्यप्रदेश में लगातार बढ़ती किसानी आत्महत्या को टीकाधारी प्रदेश के कृषिमंत्री ने किसानों का पिछले जन्म का पाप बताया है. उन्होंने कहा कि लगातार किसानों ने खाद और केमिकलयुक्त दवाओं को डालकर धरती मां को बीमार करने का जो पाप किया है, उसी का परिणाम है कि धरती मां फसल खराब कर रही है और उनका पुत्र यानी कि किसान मरने को मजबूर है.

ऐसे उपदेशों की एक व्याख्या तो ये है कि किसान अपने कर्मों यानी पाप से मर रहा है. यानी उसकी आत्महत्या में किसी की जिम्मेदारी नहीं. न राज्य की, न केन्द्र की, न खाद-बीज बनाने वाली कंपनियों की, न नीति-निर्माताओं की और न बदलती प्रकृति की. दूसरी व्याख्या उन संघियों, एन.जी.ओ., सरकारी कारिंदों या तथाकथित् जैविक और प्राकृतिक खेती के पूजकों की है, जो कहते हैं कि हमने जल-जंगल-जमीन से जो छेड़छाड़ की, उसी का परिणाम है ये त्रासदी.

मतलब साफ है कि सब कुछ उस पापी किसान का ही किया धरा है. जबकि किसान और उसका खेत, बीज, खाद, सिंचाई, पैदावार उसके दाम और बाजार हमेशा सत्ता से नियंत्रित होते रहे हैं. फिर चाहे वो राजशाही हो, अंग्रेजी दौर की जमींदारी-सामंतशाही हो या फिर आज का तथाकथित लोकतंत्र. जिस हरित क्रांति या आधुनिक खेती को आज हमारे योजनाकार, राजनेता, सरकार, वैज्ञानिक या सामाजिक कार्यकर्त्ता लगातार गरिया रहे हैं, उसे किसान के खेतों तक पहुंचाने का पुण्यकर्म भी इन्होंने ही किया था. और आज किसान को पापी बताकर जैविक, प्राकृतिक या ऋषि की नारेबाजी भी यही खेत से दूर खड़े लोग कर रहे हैं.

असल में पाप-पुण्य की समझ ही खेती को धार्मिक कर्मकांड बना देने से निकली है. तभी तो प्रदेश के कृषि विभाग की वेबसाईट भरपूर अवैज्ञानिकता फैलाते हुए बताती है कि इस मुहूर्त या नक्षत्र में फलां वस्तु बोने से इतना फायदा होगा. इन्हें कौन बताये कि इल्ली का प्रकोप होने पर खेत में हवन करने पर इल्ली खत्म नहीं बल्कि भाग जाती है. प्रदेश का सिंचाई विभाग वॉटरशेड को शिवगंगा कह कर सिंचाई करने की बात करता है. प्रदेश का वन महकमा और उसके ज्ञानी वैज्ञानिक कहते हैं कि सीताफल और आंवले की पैदावार बढ़ाने के लिये पेड़ों को राग भैरवी सुनाना चाहिये और वो भी ऐरे-गैरे की नहीं प्रसिद्ध सितारवादक पं.रविशंकर के सितार से निकली हुई.

कृषिमंत्री को खुश करने के लिये प्रदेश के कृषि विश्वविधालय के वैज्ञानिक अब एक ‘‘अमृत पानी’’ तैयार कर रहे हैं, जिससे खेत की उत्पादन क्षमता बढ़ाई जाये. आश्चर्य है कि इसका पहला प्रयोग उसी सीहोर जिले के गांव में किया गया, जहां सबसे पहले किसान ने आत्महत्या की.

एक और अंधा प्रयोग प्रदेश का साईंस एंड टेक्नालॉजी विभाग करोड़ों रुपये खर्च करके प्रायः हर साल कई जगह कर रहा है. इसमें सोमयज्ञ किया जाता है और उससे सूखे खेतों में पानी गिराने का दावा किया जाता है. अभी तक पानी की एक बूंद भी नहीं गिरी पर करोड़ों रुपये का चूना जरुर लगा. जबकि खेती और किसान की पद्धति अपने-आप में एक विज्ञान है. जो हमें भडूरी की कहावतों से लेकर कृषि विज्ञान की पुस्तकों में अपने तथ्य और तर्क के साथ हमेशा दिखाई देती है. असल में ऐसी ही अवैज्ञानिकता से निकलता है पाप-पुण्य का फंडा, जो कि मरे हुए किसान के सिर पर फोड़ा जाता है.

आश्चर्य है कि इस पापी किसान के मरने की खबरें भी उन इलाकों या जिलों से ज्यादा आ रही हैं, जो या तो मुख्यमंत्री या कृषिमंत्री के गृह और राजनैतिक क्षेत्र हैं. जहां से ये लोग इसी पापी किसान के दम पर चुनाव जीतते आ रहे हैं. पिछले 15 दिनों में प्रदेश में 18 किसानों ने आत्महत्या की है. और इस सबका तात्कालिक कारण अत्यधिक ठंड के कारण पड़ा पाला या तुसार है. इस पाला ने कई सालों बाद एक अच्छी फसल को पूरी तरह खत्म कर दिया. इस फसल से उस किसान ने अपने सिर पर चढ़े कर्जे को पटाने की आशा पाली थी. इस फसल के लिये उसने लागत भी भरपूर लगायी थी लेकिन पूरी फसल चौपट हो गई.

कितना दुखद है कि जिस कर्जे को माफ करने की बात केन्द्र और राज्य की सरकारें पिछले कुछ सालों से लगातार करती आई हैं, वही कर्जा आज भी किसानों के गले का फंदा बना हुआ है. जबकि कई करोड़ रुपये इस किसान के कर्ज के नाम पर घोषित हो चुके हैं. वहीं पिछले दो सालों में केन्द्र और राज्य की सरकारें इसी झूठे आश्वासन और नारों के दम पर फिर से चुन कर आ गईं. अभी तक मध्यप्रदेश किसान आत्महत्या के मामले में तीसरे पायदान पर था पर पिछले पन्द्रह दिन की रफ्तार बताती है कि प्रदेश शीघ्र ही पहले नहीं तो दूसरे नंबर पर आने को तैयार है. वह भी तब जब इस प्रदेश का मुख्यमंत्री हर सांस में अपने-आप को किसान पुत्र बताने से नही चूकता है. जब इस प्रदेश का कृषि मंत्री अचानक स्वंयभू जैविक बाबा बन जाता है और जैविक नीति बनाने में लग जाता है. जब प्रदेश का कृषि विभाग अचानक नाम बदलकर खेती का नहीं किसान के कल्याण का विभाग बन बैठता है. जब विभाग के अदना से लेकर अदना तक के कर्मचारी कर्मकांडी तरीके से किसानों की बात करने लगते हैं. जब संघ से जुड़े संगठन का किसान संगठन नूरा-कुश्ती के रुप में अपनी 185 मांगों के लिये दो दिन तक राजधानी को जाम कर देता है. जब जैविक खेती और भोजन के अधिकार के नाम पर किसानों को बहलाने के लिये ढेरों एनजीओ धो-पोंछकर अपनी दूकानें चमकाने लगते हैं और बाजार, सरकार, वित्तीय संस्थानों तथा तकनीक को गरियाते हुए अखबारों में छाने लगते हैं.

ये मौतें तो सिर्फ बालिग या व्यस्क किसानों की हैं पर अगर हम किसान के सबसे छोटे प्रतिनिधि बच्चा या शिशु की कुपोषण से हुई मौतों का आंकड़ा देखें तो दिल दहल जाता है. कुपोषण की इन मौतों में भी प्रदेश पिछले कई सालों से सबसे ऊपर बैठा हुआ है. जबकि सरकार, राजनीतिक पार्टी और सिविल सोसाइटी इस मुद्दे पर भी अपने आपको सजग और सतर्क रहने का दावा करती है. पर कुपोषण से मौत का आंकड़ा हर क्षण बढ़ता जाता है.

फिलहाल 500 करोड़ रुपये राहत की घोषणा, पटवारी हल्का नहीं बल्कि अब प्रत्येक खेत का स्वतंत्र मुआवजा तय होने की बात. लगान माफी, ऋण वसूली पर तत्काल रोक, पचास प्रतिशत हानि को 100 प्रतिशत माना जाये. फसल बीमा के त्रुटिपूर्ण प्रावधान को संशोधित किया जाना, दलित-आदिवासी किसानों को 200 करोड़ रुपये के कर्ज माफ करने तथा अपंजीकृत साहूकारों के ऋण से छुटकारा दिलाने तथा गिरवी रखे खेत को नीलाम नहीं करने का कानून बनाने की बात किसान पुत्र मुख्यमंत्री ने फिर से बड़े जोर-शोर से उठायी है.

अब देखना है कि आत्महत्या करते उस दरिद्र और गरीब किसान या उसके परिवार तक इस घोषणाओं का कितना अंश पहुंच पाता है. क्योंकि इन भारी लाभों की घोषणा से जिनके चेहरे खिल उठे हैं, उनमें सरकारी कारिंदे, अफसर, सहकारी नेता, सत्ता पार्टी का राजनैतिक कार्यकर्त्ता और इन सबको साधने वाला गांव या क्षेत्र का बिचौलिया. जिनसे गुजरकर इस राशि का अंश उस पीड़ित तक पहुंचेगा. यानी मरे हुए के परिवार तक राशि पहुंचना भी हमारी व्यवस्था में इतना सरल नहीं.

ताजा उदाहरण केन्द्र सरकार की ऋण माफी योजना का है, जिसमें 60 हजार से अधिक अपात्रों का ही कर्ज माफ कर दिया गया. विधानसभा का हंगामा, विभिन्न जांच रपट, विरोधी दलों की अपील और मीडिया के खुलासे के बाद पता चला कि मध्यप्रदेश में 200 करोड़ रुपये ऐसे लोगों में बांट दिये गये जिनका खेती से या नुकसान से कोई लेना-देना नहीं है.

30 सितंबर 2010 को सामने आयी रपट बताती है कि 2 लाख 14 हजार 129 किसानों के, 245 करोड़ 72 लाख 14 हजार 353 रुपये के कर्ज माफी आवेदन पास हुए थे. जिसमें 60 हजार 188 दावे बोगस पाये गये. इनमें कई सारे तो कार, जीप, मोटरसाईकिल आदि के ऋण माफ कर दिये गये. और असल पात्र को ऐसी योजना का पता ही नहीं. आज प्रदेश के जिन गांवों में आत्महत्या हुई है उनमें से कई ऐसी किसी योजना के बारे में नहीं जानते.

किसानों के देश भारत में हम हमेशा से दो कहावतें सुनते आये हैं, एक तो हमारे यहां खेती एक जुआ है और दूसरा किसान कर्ज में पैदा होता है, कर्ज में जीता है और कर्ज में ही दम तोड़ देता है. यानी कर्ज लेना और या खेती पर दांव लगाना कोई अचानक या किसी साजिश से नहीं हुआ है. हां, ये जरुर है कि आज उसका रुप और मात्रा बदल गयी. किसान भी आज की पूंजीवादी दुनिया का ब्रम्ह वाक्य ‘‘हिम्मत करो, आगे बढ़ो’’ से प्रभावित होकर ज्यादा जोखिम उठाने लगा है. फिर कर्ज लेने में ज्यादा कोई बुराई भी नहीं, सिर्फ जरुरत है अपनी चादर को पहचान कर उसे मैनेज करने की.

ये जरुर है कि ‘‘क्रेडिट कार्ड’’ अन्य सरकारी योजनायें, अनुदान के हिस्से का लालच, बढ़ती लागत और बाजार का आकर्षण के नित नये लालच उसे भी बाकी समाज की तरह अपनी ओर रिझा रहे हैं. और फिर वैश्विक होती खेती, निर्यात योग्य फसल का दवाब, खेती का कंपनीकरण, कम या खत्म होता अनुदान, कम होता सरकारी निवेश, हवाला बाजार, बाहरी माल की डंपिंग, ठेका खेती, विश्व व्यापार संगठन की कठिन शर्तें और सत्ता का खेती को तीसरे पाले में (विकास दर में तीसरा हिस्सा) रखना भी किसान की रीढ़ तोड़ने के लिये काफी है.

योजना आयोग की 2009 की रपट कहती है कि किसानों का एक बड़ा हिस्सा लगभग 40 प्रतिशत या तो खेती करना छोड़ चुका है या छोड़ना चाहता है. वहीं राष्ट्रीय रिकॉर्ड ब्यूरो के आंकड़े कहते हैं कि 1997 से 2010 तक यानी इन तीन सालों में दो लाख, सोलह हजार, पांच सौ किसानों ने न सिर्फ खेती को बल्कि दुनिया को ही अलविदा कह दिया, यानी कि आत्महत्या की. वहीं लाखों एकड़ उपजाऊ जमीन रायल इस्टेट, कंपनियों, बायोफ्यूल, सेज, सड़क और बांधों की बलि चढ़ गयी. इनमें भी 60-65 प्रतिशत हिस्सा उस छोटे सीमांत किसान या खेतीहर मजदूर का है, जो हमारी बढ़ती हुई व्यवस्था या ऊंची उठती विकास दर के बही-खाते से नदारद है. न सिर्फ सत्ता के बही-खाते से बल्कि विभिन्न राजनीतिक धाराओं, सिविल सोसाईटियों, मीडिया या योजनाकारों के बोलचाल, लिखा-पढ़ी में भी इसका जिक्र नहीं है. इसका थोड़ा बहुत जिक्र सिर्फ भोजन सुरक्षा बिल या भोजन के अधिकार जैसे उसके सामने फेंके टुकड़ों में है, जिससे ये आधा पेट रहकर न मर सकें, न संगठित होकर विद्रोह पर उतर सकें और मध्यम, उच्च मध्यम वर्ग की दूकानें इसकी आंच व आग से बची रहें.

शायद यही कारण है कि जिसके पास खोने को कुछ भी नहीं, उससे डर कर आज एक बड़ी लॉबी या जमात भोजन का अधिकार, रोजगार का अधिकार, शिक्षा का अधिकार, जंगल का अधिकार और तथाकथित सूचना के अधिकार जैसे झुनझुने उसके बहलाने के लिये पकड़ा रहे हैं. यानी खदबदाती हुई आग पर पानी डालने का काम कर रही है.

जनगीतकार बल्लीसिंह चीमा के गीत “ले मशालें चल पड़े हैं लोग मेरे गांव के” की पंक्तियां ‘‘तेलंगाना जी उठेगा, देश के हर गांव में’’ गाते हुए हम बड़े हुए हैं और हमने जाना है कि तेलंगाना के किसानों का सामंती व्यवस्था के खिलाफ संघर्ष मारने वाला या मरने वाला नहीं. शायद इसलिये कवि ने क्रांति के इस बीज को गांव-गांव तक पहुंचाने की कल्पना और जरुरत समझी थी.

तेलंगाना ही नहीं तिभागा, पुलप्पावायलर, श्रीकाकूलम, नक्सलबाड़ी, निपानी, बोधगया, चंपारण का इतिहास हमें किसानों के संगठन, संघर्ष और जुझारुपन की ही बार-बार याद दिलाता है. आखिर क्या कारण है कि हमारा आज का किसान एक बहुत ही व्यक्तिवादी, निराशात्मक दौर से गुजरकर आत्महत्या की ओर प्रेरित हो रहा है. ये सोचने-समझने और विचार करने का प्रश्न है.

(योगेश दीवान)

सूचना को ना

2011-02-05T10:13:00.003+05:30

तो क्या अब सूचना का अधिकार भी देश के दूसरे सैकड़ों नियम-कायदे और कानून की तरह नौकरशाहों की साजिशों का शिकार बन कर रह जायेगा ? कम से कम झारखंड में जिस तरीके से सरकारी भर्राशाही में इस कानून का दम निकालने की कोशिश हो रही है, उससे तो ऐसा ही लगता है. लाट साहबों के नखरे रखने वाले सरकारी अधिकारी-कर्मचारी और सूचना अधिकारी व सूचना आयुक्त मिल-जुल कर इस कानून के खिलाफ ऐसे-ऐसे दाव-पेंच अपना रहे हैं, जिसमें इस कानून के सहारे सूचना निकलवाने का सपना देखने वाले आम आदमी का दम निकल जाये.

झारखंड में सरकारी भर्राशाही का आलम ये है कि राज्य सरकार के अधिकांश विभाग अव्वल तो सूचना के अधिकार के तहत आवेदन लेने में ही आनाकानी करते हैं. अगर किसी तरह आवेदन ले भी लिया तो सूचना देना-न देना उनकी ‘कृपा’ पर निर्भर होता है. सूचना न मिले तो आप अपील कर सकते हैं, राज्य आयुक्त के पास जा सकते हैं. लेकिन इन सबों के बाद भी सूचना मिल जाये, ये जरुरी नहीं है. हां, सूचना आयुक्त से अपील के बाद आवेदन वापस लेने की धमकियां आपको ज़रुर मिल सकती हैं.

सरकार ने प्रसाद बांटने की तरह राज्य में सूचना आयुक्त बनाये और सबको पीली बत्तियां बांट दी. मोटी तनख्वाह पाने वाले इन सूचना आयुक्तों के जिम्मे कितने काम हैं, यह देखने-जानने की फुरसत किसी के पास नहीं है. जबकि यहां अन्य राज्यों की तरह एक-दो सूचना आयुक्तों से भी काम हो सकता था.

इस पद की शोभा बढ़ाने वालों की मंशा जनता की सेवा में कम मलाई मारने में ज्यादा है. सरकार में बैठे नेताओं की परिक्रमा कर कई लोग लिखा-पढ़ी का काम छोडकर यह पद पाने में सफल हो गये. सरकार में बैठे लोगों के लिए अपने लोगों को उपकृत करने के लिए अच्छा मौका मिल गया. धीरे -धीरे यह पद मलाईदार बनता गया. इन आयुक्तों की ठसक किसी मंत्री से कम नहीं रह गयी. फिलहाल सूचना आयुक्तों की कार्यशैली पर ही कई तरह के प्रश्न खड़े होने लगे हैं. कुछ सूचना आयुक्त लगभग थानेदार की भूमिका निभा रहे हैं और उल्टा सूचना के बदले लोगों को ब्लैकमेल कर रहे हैं.

दूरदराज से लोग शिकायत लेकर सूचना आयुक्तों के पास आते हैं. लेकिन इन्हें न्याय मिलना तो दूर कार्यालयों के इतने चक्कर लगवाये जाते हैं कि ये थक हार कर वापस लौटने को विवश हो जाते हैं.

पिछले दिनों रांची के केन्द्रीय पुस्तकालय में यूथ फॉर द चेंज के तत्वावधान में आयोजित जन सुनवाई कार्यक्रम के दौरान राज्य में सूचना के अधिकार के हाल को लेकर हैरतअंगेज तथ्यों का खुलासा हुआ.

दुमका के प्रो. बह्मदयाल मंडल ने सूचना आयुक्त पर आरोप लगाया कि सूचना मिलना तो दूर, उनके मामले में एफआईआर दर्ज कराने की धमकी दे डाली. सूचना के अधिकार के तहत दुमका के जिला शिक्षा पदाधिकारी सह लोक सूचना अधिकारी शिवचरण मंडल से शिक्षा विभाग से संबधित सूचनाएं मांगी थी. सूचना तो नहीं मिली, बदले में प्रताड़ना मिली. उनकी बहू रंभा कुमारी को सूरजमंडल उच्च विद्यालय सरैयाहाट दुमका से निकाल दिया गया तथा अभद्र व्यवहार किया गया.

रांची धुर्वा के नागेश्वर शर्मा ने कहा कि उन्होंने राज्य पुलिस की बहाली की मेगा सूची सूचना के अधिकार के तहत मांगी थी लेकिन तीन साल के बाद भी उन्हें सूचना नहीं दी गयी और मामला हाईकोर्ट में चल रहा है.

झारखंड के साहबगंज के राधेश्याम कहना था कि उनके घर के बगल में विडियो सिनेमा हॉल खोल दिया गया. उन्होंने सूचना मांगी कि आवासीय परिसर में ऐसे सिनेमा हॉल खोलने की अनुमति किस प्रक्रिया के तहत दी गयी. उन्हें सूचना नहीं दी गयी.

राज्य के पूर्व मंत्री रामचंद्र केसरी का कहना था कि गढ़वा के उपायुक्त ने एक निर्देश जारी किया है कि अब प्रखंड तथा अनुमंडलों की जगह केवल जिला में ही लोक सूचना पदाधिकारी होंगे. यह मनमानी नहीं तो और क्या है?

झारखंड में श्री कृष्ण लोक प्रशासन केन्द्र ने आम लोगों को सूचना उपलब्ध कराने की गरज से पिछले वर्ष अधिकारियों का प्रशिक्षण चलाया था ताकि वे इस कानून को बेहतर ढंग से समझ सकें. वहीं इस संस्थान ने अपने दरवाजे आम लोगों के लिए खोल दिया तथा आम लोगों को प्रशिक्षण दिया. केन्द्र के तात्कालीन महानिदेशक अशोक कुमार सिंह ने इस दिशा में सकारात्मक पहल की थी . लेकिन इन प्रशिक्षणों के उलट लोगों को सरकारी महकमे में अब सवाल पूछने की सजा मिल रही है.

हालांकि कई सूचना अघिकार कार्यकर्ताओं का कहना है कि अब वे अभद्र व्यवहार करनेवाले सूचना आयुक्तों के यहां से अपने मामले का तबादला कराएंगे. साथ ही शपथपत्र दाखिल कर राज्यपाल को वस्तु स्थिति से वाकिफ कराएंगे. इसके अलावा प्रीवेंशन आफ करप्शन एक्ट 31-डी के तहत मुकदमा दायर करेंगे.

मैग्सेसे अवार्ड विजेता अरविंद केजरीवाल कहते हैं “सूचना आयुक्तों के चयन की प्रक्रिया में बदलाव की जरूरत है. सूचना आयुक्तों की एक लंबी टीम की नहीं बल्कि एक सूचना आयुक्त ही काफी है.”

आंकड़े बताते हैं कि इस कानून को लागू हुए पांच वर्ष बीत गए लेकिन स्थिति है कि केवल 15 फीसदी मामले में ही लोक सूचना अधिकारी तय समय सीमा में जवाब दे पाते हैं. 55 फीसदी लोगों को सूचना मिलने में तीस दिनों से ज्यादा समय लगा तो 9 फीसदी लोगों को 60 दिनों से ज्यादा इंतजार करना पड़ा. एक फीसदी लोगों को एक वर्ष से ज्यादा समय तक का इंतजार करना पड़ा. 19 फीसदी लोगों को सूचना ही नहीं मिली. पारदर्शिता और सुशासन के नाम पर राज कर रही सरकारों के कथनी करनी की पोल स्वतः खुल जाती है.

एक अध्ययन के मुताबिक सूचना आयोगों का दरवाजा खटखटाने वाले 100 में से 27 लोगों को ही सही जानकारी मिल पाती है. अपीलकर्ता के पक्ष में 39 फीसदी ही आदेश लागू हो पाते है. प्रदेश स्तर पर तैनात सूचना आयुक्तों की दोषपूर्ण कार्यप्रणाली के कारण सूचना के अधिकार का लाभ आम लोगों को नहीं मिल पा रहा है.

सूचना के अधिकार में वे ही लोग बाधा बन रहे हैं जिन लोगो पर इसके कार्यान्वयन की जिम्मेदारी है. सूचना आयुक्तों के पास अधिकार के तौर पर ऐसे दांत हैं, जिसका इस्तेमाल वे दोषियो को दंडित कर सकते है.

अरविंद केजरीवाल कहते हैं- “धारा 18 के तहत सूचना आयुक्त अधिकारियों से न केवल जानकारी ले सकते है बल्कि पुलिस का भी इस्तेमाल कर सकते हैं. सूचना आयुक्तों की नियुक्ति राजनीतिक हस्तक्षेप से बल्कि योग्यता के आधार पर की जानी चाहिए. आम जनता तो इस कानून की मदद से भ्रष्टाचार पर कारगर तरीके से नकेल कसने का प्रयास कर रही है तो दूसरी तरफ सरकार में बैठे भ्रष्ट अधिकारी और नेता लोगों को सूचना और उनके अधिकार से वंचित ही करना चाहते हैं.”

सूचना के अधिकार से वंचित करने वाले अधिकारी और सूचना आयुक्तों के मामले को सुनते हुये ‘बाड़ द्वारा ही खेत को खाने’ का पुराना किस्सा याद आता है न !

(कुमार कृष्णन)

खाली पेट गणतंत्र

2011-02-05T10:08:00.004+05:30

देश का पहला बजट 200 करोड़ रूपये का था. 60 वर्षों में इसका आकार 200 करोड़ से 10 लाख करोड़ रूपये पर पहुँच गया. पर अफसोस यदि कुछ नहीं बदला तो गरीबी और भुखमरी का दर्द. इस गणतंत्र के पर्व पर भी हम गर्व से नहीं कह सकते हैं कि आर्थिक विकास ने लोगों को भूखी रातों से मुक्ति दिला दी है. यहां आज भी हर रोज 42 करोड़ लोग पेट भरे बिना नींद के आगोश में जाते हैं.

सवाल यह है कि बजट जब 5000 गुना बढ़ता है, तब अनाज उत्पादन चार गुना ही बढ़ पाता है. ग्रामीण भारत में 23 करोड़ लोग अल्पपोषित हैं, 50 फीसदी बच्चों की मृत्यु का कारण कुपोषण है. 15 से 49 वर्ष की आयु वर्ग में हर 3 में से एक व्यक्ति कमजोर है. सरकार लगभग 22.8 करोड़ टन अनाज उत्पादन के लक्ष्य को हासिल करने की जद्दोजहद में है परन्तु वर्ष 2015 में इसे अपनी जरूरत पूरा करने के लिए 25 से 26 करोड़ टन अनाज की जरूरत होगी, यह पूरा हो पाना संदेहास्पद है. दुनिया की 27 प्रतिशत कुपोषित जनसंख्या केवल भारत में रहती है.

5 वर्ष से कम उम्र के 70 फीसदी बच्चों में खून की कमी है. 19 में से 11 राज्यों में 75 प्रतिशत से ज्यादा बच्चे एनीमिया के शिकार हैं. मतलब यह है कि भारत का विकास आंकड़ों का मकड़जाल है. यह लोगों की जिन्दगी में बदलाव का सूचक नहीं है.

1972-73 में प्रति व्यक्ति प्रतिमाह 15.3 किलोग्राम अनाज को उपभोग होता था, अब वह 12.22 किलोग्राम प्रतिमाह आ गया है. 2005-06 में एक सदस्य औसतन उपभोग 11.920 किलोग्राम था और वहीं 2006-07 में औसत भोजन का उपभोग घटकर मात्र 11.685 (1.97प्रतिशत कम) किलोग्राम प्रति व्यक्ति रह गया.

एक तरफ तो लोग भूखे सोने पर मजबूर हैं और दूसरी तरफ लाखों मीट्रिक टन अनाज खुले में पड़ा है. भारत में 415 लाख टन अनाज सुरक्षित रखे जाने की क्षमता है. 190 लाख टन अनाज केवल पन्नियों के नीचे असुरक्षित परिस्थितियों में पड़ा है. इस अनाज के त्वरित वितरण से एक बड़े हिस्से को राहत पहुंचाई जा सकती है. गौरतलब है कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट के 35 किलो अनाज वितरित करने के निर्देश का भी पालन नहीं किया जा रहा है और 20 से 25 किलो अनाज ही बांटा जा रहा है। खुले में रखे इस अनाज का उपयोग इस गैप को खत्म करने में किया जा सकता है. 600 लाख टन अनाज के भंडारण के बावजूद इस राजनैतिक-प्रशासनिक इच्छाशक्ति का अभाव है कि इसे गरीब और सबसे वंचित वर्ग तक पहुंचाया जा सके.

आजादी के बाद से ही यह मान लिया गया कि विकास तो औद्योगिकरण से ही होगा. आर्थिक नीतियां ही ऐसी बनाई गईं, जिनमें खेती को ‘‘अकुशल श्रम’’ माना गया और खेती के श्रम के मूल्य को कम आंका गया. सरकारों द्वारा शहरी क्षेत्र, उद्योगों और नौकरशाहों को तरह-तरह की सब्सिडी भी दी गई, जिससे वे तो तेजी से सम्पन्न हुए और किसान, ग्रामीण मजदूर और गाँव गरीब होते गए.

खाद्यान्न उत्पादन में उपयोग की जा रही जमीन और पानी को छीनकर उद्योगों को देने में खाद्यान्न सुरक्षा कैसे सुनिश्चित होगी ? लाखों आदिवासियों को पालने वाले जंगलों को खदानों और फैक्ट्रियों के लिए नष्ट किया जा रहा है. इस पर रोक लगनी चाहिये.

खाद्य असुरक्षा का प्रमुख कारण है कृषि क्षेत्र के लगातार शोषण से उत्पन्न उसमें मौजूदा संकट. हालात यह हैं कि आज देश की 66 प्रतिशत आबादी सीधे कृषि पर निर्भर है, पर इस आबादी का देश की कुल कमाई में हिस्सा केवल 17 प्रतिशत है. दूसरी तरफ निजी कंपनियों का एक प्रतिशत से भी कम होने के बावजूद वह देश की 33 प्रतिशत कमाई पर अपना दावा करता है. असली ‘‘खाद्य सुरक्षा’’ तभी मिल सकती है जब न केवल शोषण और विस्थापन की नीतियाँ बदलें, बल्कि भारत की राजनैतिक अर्थव्यवस्था ही बदली जाए. जब तक देश से कुपोषण समाप्त न हो जाए तब तक खाद्यान्न के निर्यात पर प्रतिबंध लगाया जाये.

अमीर देशों में पशु और पोल्ट्री में गरीब देशों से आयातित अनाज खिलाया जा रहा है जबकि हमारे देश के गरीब भूखे रह रहे हैं. खरीद सभी मंडियों से हो ताकि सरकारी खरीद का फायदा सभी इलाकों को मिले न कि सिर्फ पंजाब, हरियाणा, आंध प्रदेश और उत्तरप्रदेश के कुछ इलाकों से, जैसा कि फिलहाल होता है.

कई ऐसे इलाके हैं जहां खाद्यान्न की किल्लत है. इसलिए यह जरूरी है कि सार्वजनिक वितरण प्रणाली के माध्यम से कमी वाले इलाकों में खाद्यान्न पहुंचाना केन्द सरकार की जिम्मेदारी होनी चाहिए, जो जन वितरण प्रणाली का बुनियादी मकसद रहा है. हर ब्लॉक में अन्न भण्डारण के लिए भंडार होने चाहिए, वर्तमान में उचित भण्डारण की कमी के कारण हजारों टन अनाज सड़ रहा है. सरकार न तो इस अनाज के सुरक्षित भंडारण की व्यवस्था कर रही है और न ही इसे भूखे लोगों में वितरित कर रही है. स्थानीय खरीदी, भण्डारण और वितरण के जरिये खाद्य सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करने के लिये गांव स्तर पर अनाज बैंक स्थापित किये जायें.

विस्तारित पीडीएस के साथ नई खरीद नीति बनना जरुरी है. न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य पर मोटे पौष्टिक अनाज, दालें और तिलहन की खरीद इन फसलों को सहारा देंगी जो फिलहाल कम और अनिश्चित दाम और कम निवेश के चलते उपेक्षित है. मोटे अनाज और दालों का समर्थन मूल्य अभी बहुत कम है. दालों की कीमतों में हालिया चढ़ाव के दौरान भी किसान ने दालें 25-35 रूपये प्रति किलोग्राम के भाव पर बेची. मूंग का न्यूनतम समर्थन मूल्य 27.6 रूपये प्रतिकिलो, तुअर का 23 रूपये किलो था जबकि खुदरा भाव 65 से 120 रूपये प्रति किलो तक रहे.

60 गणतंत्र दिवसों का उत्सव मना चुके इस देश में भुखमरी और खाद्य सुरक्षा के सवाल भौतिक (यानी उत्पादन) के सवाल न होकर पराभौतिक (यानी राजनैतिक और आर्थिक नीतियां) हैं. आज की स्थिति को चिंतनीय माना जाना चाहिये जबकि 77 प्रतिशत लोग जीवन जीने के लिये प्रतिदिन महज 20 रूपये खर्च कर पाने की स्थिति में है और प्याज 60 रूपये, टमाटर40 रूपये, दालें 70 से 90 रूपये किलो के भाव से बिक रही हैं.

मुद्रा की कीमत जीवन की बुनियादी जरूरतों के सापेक्ष लगातार कम हो रही हो, तब यदि सरकार (जिनमें प्रधानमंत्री, वित्तमंत्री, कृषि मंत्री और योजना आयोग शामिल है) सार्वजनिक रूप से यह घोषणा करती हो कि मंहगाई के संकट को खत्म करना उसके बूते की बात नहीं है, तब तो हमें कम से कम यह सवाल पूछना ही चाहिये कि आखिर इस गणतंत्र को चला कौन रहा है? बार-बार यह साबित हुआ है कि कृषि मंत्रालय ने पिछले 5 सालों में बाजार की बड़ी ताकतों को लाभ पहुंचाने के लिये आपूर्ति को कम किया है, दाम चरम स्तर तक बढ़ने दिये हैं, काला बाजारी को नजर अंदाज किया है और इससे भी आगे बढ़कर सार्वजनिक रूप से यह कह कर उन्हें प्रोत्साहन दिया है कि बढ़ती कीमतों के दौर में भी सरकार चादर तान कर और मुंह ढंककर गहरी नींद में होने का नाटक करती रहेगी.

इन परिस्थितियों में सरकार जिन तर्कों को आधार बनाकर लोकव्यापी राष्ट्रीय खाद्य सुरक्षा कानून को नकार रही है, उनमें सबसे प्रमुख है कि सबको देने लायक अनाज देश में है ही नहीं ! पर यह तर्क एक झूठ है. यदि सरकार हर परिवार (23 करोड़ परिवार) को 50 किलो अनाज देना चाहे तो उसे केवल 138 लाख तक अनाज की जरूरत होगी जबकि देश के किसानों ने वर्ष 2008-09 में 219 लाख टन अनाज उगाया था. हम मानते हैं कि सभी 23 करोड़ परिवार सस्ता अनाज नहीं लेंगे और यदि 80 फीसदी परिवार ऐसा अनाज लेते हैं तो सरकार की जरूरत केवल 110 लाख टन की रहेगी. यानी देश में अनाज है. इसी तरह यदि इतने ही परिवारों को 5.25 किलो दालें दीं जाये तो केवल 1.15 करोड़ मीट्रिक टन दालों की जरूरत होगी जबकि उत्पादन 1.47 करोड़ मीट्रिक टन से ज्यादा है. जब एक परिवार को हर माह 2.8 किलो तेल देना होगा तो 61.8 लाख टन खाद्य तेल की जरूरत होगी और सभी स्रोतों को मिलाकर देख में वर्ष 2008-09 में 183 लाख टन खाद्य तेल की उपलब्धता थी.

मामला साफ है कि देश में खाद्यान्न पर्याप्त है. दूसरा बड़ा तर्क है कि लोकव्यापी खाद्य सुरक्षा कानून लागू करने के लिये सरकार को 90 हजार करोड़ रूपये खर्च करने पड़ेंगे और इतना धन सरकार के पास नहीं है. सच्चाई यह है कि देश के सकल घरेलू उत्पाद में से 18 प्रतिशत ही टैक्स के रूप में सरकार के पास आता है जबकि अमरीका में 28 प्रतिशत और स्केन्डेनेवियन देशों में यह अनुपात 45 से 50 प्रतिशत है.

गरीबी की रेखा बहिष्कार की प्रक्रिया को बुनती है जिसमें दलित, आदिवासी, एकल महिलाएं, वृद्ध बच्चे, विकलांग और दूसरे वंचित वर्ग खाद्यान्न योजनाओं से वंचित हो जाते हैं. इन्हीं परिस्थितियों में जब जरूरत के मान से हकों का निर्धारण नहीं होता है तब भ्रष्टाचार पनपता है और गैर-जवाबदेहिता की स्थिति में लोगों तक उनके अधिकार नहीं पहुंच पाते हैं. गरीबी की रेखा के छोटे होते जाने के कारण ज्यादातर लोग खुले बाजार के शोषण के शिकार होते हैं. भुखमरी से मुक्ति, जीवन के अधिकार, शोषण को चुनौती देते हुए समानता आधारित जवाबदेय व्यवस्थापक की स्थापना खेती-प्राकृतिक संसाधनों के संरक्षण के लिए राष्ट्रीय खाद्य सुरक्षा कानून का सर्वव्यापी होना ही एकमात्र विकल्प है.

एक ओर तो सरकार सेवा और उद्योगों से टैक्स ही कम लेती है और दूसरी ओर इस टैक्स पर भी भारी छूट दी जाती है. वर्ष 2009-10 में केन्द्र सरकार ने टैक्स में 5,02,229 करोड़ रूपये छूट दी जो कुल टैक्स संग्रह का 79.54 प्रतिशत है. इसी साल सोना, हीरा और आभूषणों में कस्टम ड्यूटी पर 39796 करोड़ रूपये की छूट दी गई. हमें मध्यमवर्गीय समाज को यह बताना होगा कि उनकी विलासिता और सुविधा के लिये सरकार तीन चौथाई जनसंख्या को भूखा रख रही है; क्या उन्हें यह स्थिति मंजूर है! किसान और आदिवासी इस गणतंत्र के मूल निवासी हैं, उनकी उपेक्षा करके बनाई गई कोई भी नीति समतामूलक और न्याय आधारित समाज की दिशा में ही बढ़ेगी; यह हमारे नीति निर्माताओं को स्वीकार कर लेना होगा.

(सचिन कुमार जैन)

All BJP chief ministers should declare assets: Advani

2011-02-05T10:01:00.001+05:30

New Delhi: Pledging to set an example in the fight against black money, BJP-led NDA today said it would direct its chief ministers and senior most leaders to declare their assets and asked the government to make all efforts to bring Indian slush funds stashed in tax havens.

Senior NDA leaders held a press conference to present the report of a task force appointed by BJP to look into the issue of Indian black money stashed abroad and ways of dealing with the issue.

"We liked (the report) and the NDA also said it is appropriate that all those holding political office, whether we are members of Parliament, whether we are leaders of political parties recognised by the Election Commission....

".... or even Central office-bearers of the political parties, or MPs. We would like all of them to be obligated to tell the government that we have no money abroad," NDA Working chairperson L K Advani said.

The NDA leaders endorsed the suggestions of the report which targets corrupt politicians as well.

"There should be a general, not specifically against any persons, FIR against (those keeping black money abroad). It has been done in the case of terrorism in Punjab, in the North East... in Nagaland," Advani said.

The senior leader quoted a recent survey which claimed that the general perception among people about politicians is that around 60 per cent of them are corrupt.

Taking a cue from Advani, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal said, "A big issue has come up in the country...NDA chief ministers should first give in writing and announce their assets and tell the government that it can seize any black money they have."

Asked if he agreed with Badal and whether Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should also declare his assets, Advani replied in the affirmative, saying all BJP and NDA chief ministers should do so.

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More poor' in India than Africa

2010-07-17T14:30:00.001+05:30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10609407.stm

The new measure of poverty assesses household poverty Eight Indian states account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African countries combined, a new measure of global poverty has found.

The Indian states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have 421 million "poor" people, the study found.

This is more than the 410 million poor in the poorest African countries, it said.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) measures a range of "deprivations" at household levels.

Developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with UN support, it will feature in the upcoming UNDP Human Development Report.

The measure assess a number of "deprivations" in households - from education to health to assets and services.

"The MPI is like a high resolution lens which reveals a vivid spectrum of challenges facing the poorest households," said OPHI director Dr Sabina Alkire.

UNDP finds 8 Indian states acutely poor

2010-07-17T14:17:00.001+05:30

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/undp-finds-8-indian-states-acutely-poor/645647/
Agencies Tags : Poverty, UNDP Posted: Tue Jul 13 2010, 03:36 hrs London:

Acute poverty prevails in eight Indian states, a new ‘multidimensional’ measure of global poverty has said. The measure claims that the eight states put together account for more poor people than those present in the 26 poorest African nations combined.

The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with the United Nation Development Programme’s (UNDP) support. It will be featured in the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report.

The measure reveals there are more ‘MPI poor’ people (421 million) in eight Indian states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal — than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).

MPI gives a multidimensional picture of people living in poverty and is expected to help target development resources more effectively, its creators said. The MPI supplants the Human Poverty Index, which had been included in the annual Human Development Reports since 1997.

The 2010 UNDP Human Development Report will be published in late October, but research findings from the MPI were made available Monday at a policy forum in London and on the websites of OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report.

MPI assesses a range of factors or ‘deprivations’: from education to health outcomes to assets and services. Taken together, these factors provide a fuller portrait of acute poverty than simple income measures. The measure reveals the nature and extent of poverty in the household, region, nation and at an international level. This new approach has been adapted for use in Mexico, and is now being considered by Chile and Colombia.

Public Petition of the Nuclear Liability Bill

2010-07-08T11:32:00.002+05:30

Hi,

This is exciting! Along with 187,759 people I signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to hold a public consultation before taking a decision on the nuclear liability bill. These petitions were delivered to the Standing Committee looking at the bill and now they have decided to hold a public consultation.

The bill in its current form lets the foreign corporations get away by paying a meagre amount in case of a nuclear accident in India. The major chunk of the expenses will be borne by the Indian tax payers. But now we have a chance to change this bill and make it stronger.

Greenpeace, an NGO working on this issue, has prepared an open letter which states the changes required in the bill. Just like the petition, this letter will stand a chance of being considered if lots of us sign it. We have less than two weeks to change the bill and prevent another Bhopal in the making.

I have already added my signature.

Can you add your signature to this letter?

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/change-the-liability-bill

Thanks!

Rakesh Ranjan

Chief Election Commissioner asks for power to deregister political parties

2010-04-16T14:50:00.003+05:30

Chief Election Commissioner asks for power to deregister political parties

Parties should furnish annual report and accounts, says Vinay Sahasrabudhe, Member National Executive Council of BJP,

Increase of mafia power worrying, says K K Mishra, Congress spokesman CEC releases “Lok Sabha 2009 Election Watch: A compendium of state election watch reports”

Bhopal, April 10 and 11, 2010‐ On the first day of the sixth national conference on Electoral and Political Reforms being organized by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, Mr Navin Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner, released a book “Lok Sabha 2009 Election Watch: A compendium of state election watch reports”. The book contains analysis on criminal and financial details of candidates and winners of Lok Sabha 2009 Elections for all states and UT‘s of India. The delegates to this conference include civil society organizations, eminent citizens, media, senior bureaucrats and Police officials, leaders from the corporate sector and the political parties.

Speaking at the conference Mr Chawla said, “The EC should be given power to De-register political parties especially those which do not even contest elections.” He also expressed deep concern about increasing instances of paid news which needed to be addressed urgently.

Speaking on the importance of the political party reforms, Mr। Manickam Tagore, MP INC said, “All political parties remain closed for new entrants, unless they have some connections. This closed nature of the parties needs to be changed and the gates should be opened to meritorious youth”.

On the importance of electoral reforms Mr. Kirit Somaiya, National Secretary BJP said, “Electoral and political reforms are crucial for the progress of the country. Paid news is a menace on which action should be quickly taken so that the spirit of democracy is kept alive”.

Mr Anil Madhav Dave, MP, BJP strongly appealed that, “Vidhan sabha and Lok sabha elections should be held jointly so that constant elections don’t become hindrance to development”.

On the second day, Representatives of Congress and BJP discussed issues like inner party democracy and funding transparency, on the concluding day of the sixth national conference on Electoral and Political Reforms organized by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch. Vinay Sahasrbuddhe, Member of BJP Executive Council said that political parties should also subject some regulation and be asked to furnish annual reports of activities and accounts. He also added that politicians should undergo professional training to become effective legislators. Mr. K.K.Mishra, Congress spokesperson from Madhya Pradesh, expressed concern about the increased role of money power and criminals in elections.

The conference also discussed the role of media in elections, and the increased danger of the phenomenon of “paid news” in election campaigns. Mr. L. C. Jain, former member of Planning Commission said that edifice of India’s democracy cannot be built without strong foundations of integrity in politics.

The conference concluded with resolutions demanding no criminal candidates, an option for “none of the above” on the voting machine and political party reforms.

People not told about their right

2010-02-11T08:50:00.001+05:30

These documents are a sample of how the money received from the Central Government for telling the public and government officers about right to information Act has been misused by RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration & Management. The responsible officers traveled around the country and ate fancy on the money meant to be used for educating people about their right to information. To cover this up, the documents have also tampered with.

RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration & Management (the academy), was chosen by the Central Government as the nodal agency for raising awareness on Right to Information Act, 2005, among the public and government employees. In 2009, 13 lakh rupees was sanctioned to it by the Central Government for this purpose. However, it seems that training has only occurred on papers; the people so trained were not even asked for their feedback on the training.

The training camps organised by the academy were restricted only to colleges. The primary reason for this is that the officer designated as nodal officer responsible for training, is closely associated with the department of higher education. That’s the reason why this scheme could not get implemented beyond colleges. In the year 2009, the academy held around 12 RTI workshops in government colleges. Due to the connivance of both the nodal officer and the college authorities, the academy stayed silent on the issue of RTI workshops being shown just in papers. They never cared to check as to what was being shown in the utility assessment letters of the college and whether the workshops were actually taking place or not. The nodal officer and the academy without even asking kept disbursing money to the colleges.

Dhar: study material for dissemination distributed amongst illiterates

In the government P.G. college of Dhar, study material for dissemination/training was distributed to a group of illiterates. At the same time, the names and addresses of BPL cardholders who were shown as present for the workshop in papers, have not been made any note of. It has been shown in papers that the workshop was attended by 160 participants whereas the list only has names of 112 participants. The college was given Rs 35,000 for a one-day workshop, which on paper, has been spent.

Mandala and Khargon: pilot project also crushed

From 2006 to 2008, Mandala and Khargon districts were made a part of the pilot project by the academy. Hence, they were allotted a sum of twelve lakh each, but no efforts were made for training in any of these districts. As a consequence, the Madhya Pradesh state information commission had to deal strongly with both the districts. Upon refusal to give information regards work done in Mandala under the pilot project, the MP information commission sent penalty notices to three officers. Show cause notices were also sent to the collector and Jabalpur commissioner.

Bhopal: made students compensate for the money spent

A training workshop was organised in the capital at Sarojini Naidu (Nootan) Government Girls Post Graduate College, Bhopal. Here too, more expenses were incurred on account of food and drinks as opposed to actual training. According to documents present with Dainik Bhaskar, Rs 14,500 was spent here on just food and drinks and only Rs 16,500 used for distributing study material. Nootan college also received Rs 35,000, along with which the college management made the professors pay Rs 300 each and the students pay Rs 10 each. The sociology department of the college was also made to give Rs 20,000 even though there is no provision for demanding any money from the college or the UGC fund nor from the professors or the students. This money was collected in the form of donations and spent off!

Muraina: number of participants not known

On November 1st, 2009, a workshop was held under the leadership of Dr. Sandeep Khanna, Director of Government P.G. college, Muraina. It was attended by ten IAS officers who had come to the college for training. However, their names and addresses are not known. Muraina college spent Rs 4,275 in excess of Rs 35,000 that it received for this purpose thus taking its total expenditure to Rs 39,295. There is also discrepancy in the utility assessment letter sent by it to the academy. The letter says that the workshop was attended by 275 participants, of which 75 were from the college, 75 general public (from outside the college) and 75 belonged to the BPL card holders. In a separate document, it is stated that the workshop was attended by 10 IAS officers of the academy, 100 BPL card holders, 10 distinguished citizens, 15 students, 40 professors and journalists (in all 175 participants). Mentioning 275 participants in one document and 175 participants in another raises doubts about the veracity of the documents.

“How would I know about what the college did or did not do on RTI training…? I cannot give any statement on this. I will need the directors approval to talk on this issue.” - Dr. Rajiv Kumar Shukla, Nodal officer and Incharge of training, Academy.

“Dr. Rajiv Kumar Shukla has been designated as the Nodal officer, and the responsible person to speak to in this regard. I cannot comment on this, he should be able to give you the complete details.” Dr. Sandeep Khanna, Director, Academy.

Raising a Stink over Toilets: Using RTI for Fixing Accountability in the Nirmal Gujarat Campaign

2009-09-14T22:00:00.002+05:30

Raising a Stink over Toilets: Using RTI for Fixing Accountability in the Nirmal Gujarat Campaign

The Problem:
The Government of Gujarat spends several crores every year to improve toilet and sanitation facilities for the poorest families in the State. Under the Nirmal Gujarat Campaign launched in 2007 families below the poverty line (BPL) receive partial financial assistance from the government for constructing modern toilets. They are required to contribute a small amount from their own pocket as well. However the scheme is riddled with corruption and does not always work to the satisfaction of the beneficiaries. In March 2008 some of the beneficiaries of this scheme approached Nagarik Adhikar Kendra (NAK) Kalol, Panchmahals district, complaining that the contractor had collected excess amounts from them but had not done much to build functional toilets.

The 1st RTI Intervention:
NAK decided to file an application under the Right to Information Act to obtain copies of the scheme guidelines and records relating to the construction of toilets in Kalol. NAK drafted an RTI request seeking the following information from the Kalol Nagarpalika (municipal body):

1. Name of the nodal agency/department responsible for ensuring the implementation of Nirmal Gujarat scheme;
2. Name of the department/office responsible for actually implementing the scheme in Kalol;
3. Procedure for selection of the contractor/contracting agency responsible for constructing the toilets;
4. Names of the beneficiaries of this scheme and the places where the toilets were constructed;
5. Name and designation of the officer of Kalol Nagarpalika responsible for supervising the construction of toilets;
6. Copy of the no objection certificate (NOC) issued by the Kalol Nagarpalika which enabled the contracting agency to collect payments; and
7. A copy of the completion report submitted by the Kalol Nagarpalika to the Municipal Finance Board which provides funding for this scheme.

When Mr. Hanifbhai Waghela of NAK visited the Nagarpalika office to submit the application he faced resistance. The public information officer (PIO) demanded to know whether he had sworn to create nuisance for the Nagarpalika (NAK has been actively using RTI to hold public authorities accountable for their actions in Panchmahals since 2005). Hanifbhai said that his intentions were honest and he wanted to know about the manner in which the Nirmal Gujarat scheme was required to be implemented. He told him that as a public servant the PIO was required to receive the information request and make a decision regards disclosure. The PIO then threatened to call the police. Hanifbhai replied that police officers were public servants too and he would not feel threatened by their presence. In the end the PIO had little choice but to accept the application. Not doing so would have attracted a monetary penalty under the RTI Act.

Despite the passage of 30 days NAK did not get the information from the Nagarpalika. An appeal was filed before the Additional District Collector, the designated appellate authority (AA) under the RTI Act. The AA heard the matter and ordered that the information be disclosed within 10 days. Despite this order NAK did not receive any information. NAK filed the second appeal with the State Information Commission (SIC) in June. The matter has not been taken up by the SIC despite the passage of 14 months.

The 2nd RTI Intervention:
After submitting the second appeal to the SIC, NAK sent an RTI application to the Municipal Finance Board based in Gandhinagar seeking the same information about the toilet scheme. This Board is responsible for the disbursal of funds to local agencies working in urban areas. After 29 days NAK received a reply from the PIO of the Board who claimed that the requisite application fee of Rs. 20 (less than 50 US cents) had not been paid. This claim was wrong as NAK had filed an application on non-judicial stamp paper worth Rs. 20 - an approved mode of fee payment in Gujarat . NAK filed the first appeal before the AA of the Board and submitted proof of fee payment. The AA ordered disclosure of all information. NAK received all the records and documents 15 days later.

The verification process:
The records NAK received in August 2008 revealed that the government of Gujarat had appointed Manav Seva Khadi Gramodyog Vikas Sangh (MSKGVS), based in Khedbrahma, as the nodal agency for implementing the Nirmal Gujarat Programme. MSKGVS had subcontracted the task to an NGO named Kastruba Mahila Sayak Grih Udoyg Sahakari Sangh Ltd. based in Balasinore in Nadiad district. Armed with the names of beneficiaries contained in the NOC list, NAK started verifying the true state of affairs and captured some images on film. After an intensive door-to-door survey and NAK came up with astonishing findings:

1. Records showed that 150 toilets were required to be constructed in Kalol during the year 2008-09. The Chief Officer, Kalol Nagarpalika had issued a no objection certificate certifying completion of the work for 111 toilets. Payments had been made to the contracting agency.
2. NAK could not find a single instance where the construction work had been completed. In seven places the work had not even begun. In many places three walls had been constructed without a roof but not pit. Scheme guidelines require that a pit of 10ft x 5ft must be dug before the walls are built. The contracting agency claimed that this was a cost effective way of constructing toilets. However the construction work began in some places soon after NAK started the verification process.
3. 16 beneficiaries did not belong to the BPL category at all.
4. None of the toilets had been connected to a sewer.
5. Some of the beneficiaries claimed that their functional toilets had been demolished by the contracting agency in order to construct a fresh one but the work had not been completed. Some families used the half-built cubicle to store firewood.
6. According to the scheme guidelines each toilet was to be constructed at the cost of Rs. 4900. The beneficiary family was required to raise Rs. 900 while the remaining sum was paid by the government. The verification process showed that 74% beneficiaries had paid Rs.1200 and another 5% had paid Rs. 1000. Only 3% of the beneficiaries had paid 900 - the correct amount. 1% of the beneficiaries had paid Rs. 800 and another 13% had paid Rs. 600 only. Where beneficiaries had paid less than the required sum, the construction work had not even begun.
7. The scheme guidelines require that adequate publicity be given to the basics of the scheme so that potential beneficiaries may opt to participate in it. None of the beneficiaries contacted during the verification process said that the contracting agency had shared any information with them about the scheme.

The Advocacy Initiative:
In September 2008 NAK submitted its findings and photographs, illustrative of the poor state of work, to the authorities with a request to investigate the matter and take action against all guilty officials and agencies. Copies of the report were sent to the the Kalol Nagarpalika, Director, Nirmal Gujarat Programme, Shahri Vikas Nigam, the District Collector, the District Planning Committee, the Municipal Finance Board, the Chief Secretary, the Minister for Urban Housing and Development, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Minister, and the Governor. None of these authorities even bothered to acknowledge receipt of the report.

Later in October NAK submitted the report as a public grievance to the District Collector and District Magistrate under the Chief Minister Swagat Karyakram. This programme has been initiated for the purpose of handling people’s grievances about the functioning of the administration. The District Collector directed his Deputy to investigate the findings. The Deputy District Collector contacted NAK to assist him. NAK took him around Kalol showing the places where functional toilets were said to have been constructed on paper. The Deputy submitted his report at the monthly meeting of Swagat chaired by the District Collector. The Chief Officer of the Nagarpalika was also present. The Deputy stated openly that NAK’s report was a true statement of facts and he had nothing more to add. The District Collector sought an explanation from the Chief Officer warning him that he risked losing his job and going to jail for issuing NOCs without properly verifying the completion of the work. He had participated in and abetted a fraud. The District Collector ordered him to get all the toilets properly constructed within a month and submit a completion report to him directly.

The Results:
The contracting agency went back to Kalol and rebuilt all the toilets as per scheme norms. Sewer connections have been provided to all the toilets. The excess money collected from the beneficiaries has been returned to them. The government decided to transfer the Chief Officer out of Kalol.

However the Chief Officer continues to serve in the Kalol Nagarpalika as he pulled political strings to get the transfer order cancelled. The government has not moved an inch to fix accountability of any officer nor has the contracting agency been blacklisted.

The Chief Officer recently asked NAK whether it would be able to take up the contract for constructing toilets during the current financial year. Apparently, the previous agency has refused to take up the job this year as working according to the norms of the scheme is not profitable enough. NAK firmly believes in its role as a citizen watchdog over public authorities and has turned down the offer. This indeed is the expectation of the 11th five year plan document which encourages civil society organisations to take on a monitoring role and ensure proper implementation of plan schemes.

- Narrated by Hanif Waghela, Zakir Sheikh and Aslambhai Dewan for CHRI and NAK.

NAK may be contacted at :- Tel: +91-9979644265; email: nakkalol05@gmail.com

[CHRI has trained NAK to use RTI strategically to hold public authorities accountable for their decisions and actions. CHRI and NAK are collaborating to spread awareness about RTI in Gujarat and monitor compliance of public authorities with their transparency obligations under the RTI Act.]

Proactive Disclosure of non-strategic information- An Initiative of...

2009-08-17T01:11:00.000+05:30

Dear all,In June 2009 the President of India stated in her address to the joint session of Parliament that dislcosure of information in non-strategic areas would be improved. While this will be applicable to the Central Government, it is important to take note of a similar initiative launched by the Government of Karnataka from December 2008. A Monthly Programme Implementation Calendar (MPIC) has been designed and disseminated amongst all public authorities to capture the plans and the progress of work regards implementation of various schemes and activities at various level of the State Government.A circular issued by the Chief Secretary, guidelines for filling up the MPIC and various formats to be used including Excel sheets are accessible at: http://finance.kar.nic.in/mpic/planmon.htm The Fiscal Policy Institute in Bangalore is providing backup support to departments to implement this initiative. The scheme was launched under the glare of the media. Compliance has been slow to pick up. The main features of MPIC are given below:Monthly Plan Implementation Calendar in Karnataka:1) Objectives:The Monthly Programme Implementation Calendar (MPIC) is a system intended to facilitate effective and timely implementation of Government’s programmes. MPIC involves detailed planning of important activities which form part of the process of implementation of a programme / scheme and arranging them in appropriate sequence according to a monthwise schedule. The monthwise schedule of activities for the implementation of a programme will help the implementing officers at the state, district, taluk and other levels to take up the programmed activities in a timebound manner according to a planned schedule for optimum results. This will avoid programmes being implemented without adequate preparation, or being unduly delayed. This will also avoid rush of expenditure by government departments towards the end of the financial year. MPIC may be considered as an extension of the Monthly Multilevel Review (MMR) system, which is in operation in the State since the early 1980’s.2) Preparation and Use of MPIC:Apart from indicating the physical and financial targets to be achieved under a programme during different months/parts of a financial year, MPIC will also depict the typical activities to be taken up for implementing the programme every month. Thus, even if no physical or financial targets / milestones are expected to be achieved in a given month, the preparatory activities for achieving the programmed targets during subsequent months are shown in the calendar. The completion or non completion of the activities programmed for every month is reported to enable implementing officers and reviewing authorities to take corrective action on a timely basis so that the targets are achieved within the time allowed for implementing the programme.The MPIC report is to be prepared for every plan scheme including the schemes relating to salaries and other establishment expenditure, and every non-plan scheme excluding the schemes / provisions meant for salaries and office expenses. Thus, plan schemes like Direction and Administration, even though relating to creation of posts and payment of salaries, are included in the MPIC while such items of non-plan expenditure are excluded. Thus, non-plan schemes / programmes like maintenance of buildings, disbursement of scholarships, purchase of medicines, etc., are all included in the MPIC reviews. The MPIC reports are to be submitted strictly complying with the MPIC format as shown in (the Annexures).In typical development departments like Agriculture, Horticulture, Education, Public Works, etc., the responsibility for implementation of programmes goes down to the officers at the Taluk / Sub-division level. The responsibility for reviewing the programmes rests with authorities at the District / Division, State Headquarters / Directorate, and the Secretariat / Ministry levels. Therefore, MPIC formats for most departments are to be prepared separately at the State level by the Head of the Department, at the District / Division level by the District / Division Heads, and at the Taluk / Sub-division level by the concerned implementing officers. In respect of Departments which do not have district / taluk level establishments the Principal Secretaries / Secretaries to Government may specify the authorities including Boards and Corporations which will report progress for MPIC reviews.The progress achieved in the implementation of schemes is to be reported in the MPIC formats by Taluk, District and State authorities in the same manner as in the case of MMR reports. At each level, the progress reported by the lower levels is to be consolidated for review and for reporting to the next higher level. The review of MPIC reports will take place in the Monthly Multilevel Review (MMR) meetings as per the current practice.3) Disclosure of MPIC:The Departments may post MPIC as prepared at the beginning of the year, updated every month with information on progress achieved on their website for public viewing. [A typical MPIC filled up for a specific month is available on the Department of Horticulture website: http://www.horticulture.kar.nic.in/mpic.pdf However the MPIC of this Department for later months is not available on this website. MPIC is not accessible on the websites of a large number of departments and directorates in Karnataka.- CHRI's note]I hope readers will share similar examples from other jurisdictions within and outside India. Andhra Pradesh has a vibrant and working system for proactively disclosing information about the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act/Scheme through the Internet. Monitoring compliance with requirements likethe MPIC is the first step towards securing accountability of public authorities.Thanks

DoPT officially confirms again that the RTI Act will be amended

2009-08-17T00:54:00.000+05:30

Dear friends,
Vishal has already posted on Humjanenge a link to the press release issued by the Department of Personnel and Training through the Press Information Bureau about what will be amended in the Right to Information Act and the steps they have taken to improve implementation. I have a few comments on the contents of the press release for your consideration. The text of the press release may be accessed at: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=51451

1) Reviewing the Second Schedule:
In July 2009 the Minister for Personnel had stated in Parliament, in response to a query raised by MPs, that the Second Schedule would be reviewed. Readers will remember that the Government of India has placed 22 intelligence and security organisations on this list. Unlike other public authorities they do not have a general obligation towards transparency except in the context of allegations of human rights violation and corruption. This partial exclusion of notified security and intelligence agencies is provided for under section 24 of the RTI Act. The press release states that the organisations on the list would be reviewed to check whether any should be deleted. The list of organisations is provided below:

Intelligence Bureau
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
Central Economic Intelligence Bureau
Directorate of Enforcement
Narcotics Control Bureau
Aviation Research Centre
Special Frontier Force
Border Security Force
Central Reserve Police Force
Indo-Tibetan Border Police
Central Industrial Security Force
National Security Guard

Special Service Bureau
Assam Rifles
Sashastra Seema Bal
Special Protection Group
Defence Research and Development Organisation
Border Road Development Organisation
Financial Intelligence Unit , India
Directorate General Income Tax (Investigation)
National Technical Research Organisation
National Security Council Secretariat
It is not clear whether the review exercise will include consideration of requests of public authorities like the defence forces who have sought to be brought under the Second Schedule. However, the primary question to ask is - whether this review will be done with or without inputs from the people in general. The Minister for Personnel had assured in Parliament that civil society organisations would be consulted regards amendments to the RTI Act. There is no sign of any public consultation where people's views have been invited. Civil society organisations and all stakeholders including Information Commissions mut be consulted on this issue.

It must also be pointed out that amending the Second Schedule is not the same as amending any other provision of the RTI Act. Amending the Second schedule can be done through a gazette notification and then tabling the notification in Parliament. In reality, this is not an amendment of the Act at all. So this proposal does not actually amount to amending the RTI Act.

What is more serious is the manner in which section 24 and the Second Schedule has been misused in States like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and recently Uttar Pradesh. Entire categories of information have been excluded under this section. For example, in 2005 the Government of West Bengal listed topics such as “sanction for prosecution”, “verification of antecedents”, ‘preparation of bills and rules” under the Political Branch of the Home Department and “all police reports (except under orders of the Court of Law)” under the Police Branch of the Home Department as being excluded under section 24.

In 2008 the Government of Tamil Nadu excluded the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption and the Tamil Nadu State Vigilance Commission stating, " Of late there has been a tendency on the part of some citizens to ask for a lot of information under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The Government feel [sic] that in vigilance cases giving information at the initial stages, investigation stages and even prosecution stages lead to unnecessary embarrassment and will hamper due process on investigation."

More recently the Government of Uttar Pradesh excluded 14 areas completely unrelated to security and intelligence organsiations under section 24. Later 9 areas were withdrawn but 5 continue to remain operational, namely, appointment of Governors; appointment of Ministers of various ranks; letters written by the Governor to the President; code of conduct of the ministers and appointment of Judges of High Court. It looks like adequate intelligence about the RTI Act was not available while drafting these notifications. All these notifications are clearly in violation of the RTI Act. Even though this a matter within the jurisdiction of the States, the DoPT must take a stand against such misuse of the Second Schedule and advise the State Governments to review their respective lists of partially excluded organisations.

2) Adding more topics to the list under section 4(1):
The press release states that more topics will be added to section 4(1) for ensuring more proactive disclosure by public authorities. This position is a reiteration of what the President of India said in her speech to Parliament in June and what the Minister for Personnel confirmed later in July. Improving proactive disclosure is a welcome move. However there is no need for amending the RTI Act to do this.

Sub-clause (xvii) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 4 [4(1)(b) for short] of the RTI Act states as follows:

"Every Public autority shall
X X X X X
b) publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,—
X X X X X
(xvii) such other information as may be prescribed; and thereafter update these publications every year;"

This clause was included in the Act in order to allow governments to use the Rules (subordinate legislation) route to increase the number of topics on which proactive disclosure should be made. When this avenue is available it is difficult to understand why the Act should be amended at all. Opening up the Act for amendment at this stage will be like opening a Pandora's box.

3) Making a provision for setting up benches of Information Commissions:
The press release states that there is no provision in the RTI Act for setting up benches of the Information Commission to decide upon appeals and complaints. The Act will be amended to enable them to set up benches. Readers will remember some time ago the DoPT had issued an advisory to the Central Information Commission and all State Information Commissions requiring them to decide appeals and complaints in collegium and not in smaller benches as is the current practice. CHRI had critiqued the advisory and members of the RTI fraternity had written to the DoPT to withdraw this circular (click on this link to access the email alert: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/national/2009/possible_amendment_of_rti_act_2005_email_alerts/bending_over_backwards_to_%20break_rti_june_29_2009.pdf). Now the DoPT wants to amend the Act to enable Commissions to set up benches. This change in stance regards constitution of benches is welcome.
However it must be noted that the RTI Act already lays down the basic principle for allowing Commissions to work in smaller benches. Sections 12(7) envisages the setting up of offices of the Central Information Commission in different parts of the country. Surely if offices of the Information Commission can be decentralised they have no choice but to hold hearings in smaller benches. The entire Commission will not be able to meet to decide every case. Similarly section 15(7) envisages setting up of offices of the State Information Commissions in different parts of the respective state. Section 15(7) has been enforced already in places like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Information Commissioners are not based at the state capital but in some of the divisional headquarters of the State. They are hearing appeals and complaints and issuing orders everyday. So the Act is not lacking in any manner on the issue of benches. This is a matter to be clarified in the subordinate legislation- namely, the appeals procedure rules.
There is a parallel available from the higher judiciary. We are all familiar with the single, double, division and constitution benches of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. Article 145(2) of the Indian Constitution states that rules shall be made to provide for the number of judges of the Supreme Court who shall sit for any purpose. Specific rules will be made outlining the powers of a single judge or Division Court. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the Chief Justice shall constitute such benches. The Supreme Court Rules issued in 1966 empower the Chief Justice of India to constitute such benches (click here for the SC Rules: http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/rulespdf.pdf These Rules were issued with the approval of the President.). The situation is similar in the High Courts.

If the DoPT wants to clear the air regards setting up of benches of the Central Information Commission, the appropriate thing to do is amend the Central Information Commission (Appeal Procedure) Rules 2005. Section 27(2)(e) of the RTI Act contains adequate powers for amending the Rules regards constitution of benches in the Information Commissions around the country. Constituting ebnches is without a doubt part of the appeals/complaints procedure. There is no need to amend the RTI Act for accomplishing this purpose.

4) RTI is a flagship programme:
Please note that the RTI Act has been mentioned on the list of flagship programmes of the Government of India as published on the website of the Press Information Bureau (to access the list click on:http://pib.nic.in/archieve/flagship/flag_faq.asp) Surely a flagship programme ought to be treated with more care.

What can we do?

Please send the following sample email/letter to the Minister Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances:

"Dear sir,
The press release issued by your Ministry through the Press Information Bureau on 03 August, 2009 indicates that the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) will be amended in order to make it more effective. We welcome your Ministry’s initiative to improve implementation of the RTI Act. We also welcome the sanction of funds to build the capacity of Information Commissions and to promote awareness about the Act amongst people.

However we would like to point out that it is not necessary to amend the RTI Act in order to strengthen its implementation for the following reasons:

1) Review of the list of organisations in the Second Schedule: This can be accomplished with a gazette notification (subsequently to be tabled in Parliament). It does not require amendment of any provision of the RTI Act.
We urge you to bring your influence to bear on the State Governments in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and such other states to remove all organisations and categories of information that have been brought under the cover of section 24 wherever they do not fit the criteria provided in that section.

2) Adding more topics to the list in section 4(1): The power to notify more topics for proactive disclosure in public authorities already exists in sub-clause (xvii) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 4. The list of topics may be added by making the necessary rules for which power is available in subsection (1) of section 27. There is no need to amend the RTI Act for this purpose.

3) Constituting smaller benches of Information Commissions: This power already exists in the Government of India and the State Governments by virtue of section 12(7) and section 15(7) respectively. This can be accomplished by suitably amending the Central Information Commission (Appeal Procedure) Rules 2005. There is no need to amend the RTI Act for this purpose.

We, the citizens of India who are the holders of the fundamental right to information guaranteed by our Constitution, wish to be consulted on all these and other issues related to the implementation of the RTI Act. We urge you to adopt public processes for collecting opinion regards any move to make changes in the RTI Act or in the Rules framed under it.

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,

(Name and address of the sender)

NO AMENDMENTS - LEAVE OUR RTI ACT ALONE."

Send your email/letter to:

1) Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India .
Email: mos-pp@nic.in or chavanprithviraj@sansad.nic.in

2) Mr. Rahul Sarin, Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India .
Email: secy_mop@nic.in

Please send us a copy of your email at venkatesh@humanrightsinitiative.org. Please circulate this email amongst your networks. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive such emails in future. You can access our previous email alerts at: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/national.htm

Thanks

DARPG Guidelines on Email Management in the Government of India

2009-07-29T21:38:00.000+05:30

Dear all,
The Department of Administrative Reforms which is part of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has issued a set of guidelines for officers of the Central Government about the use of emails in office. The complete text of the guidelines is accessible at: http://darpg.nic.in/arpg-website/ereference/e-mail-mgmt.doc

I have listed below the highlights of these guidelines:

1) The purpose of using emails in Government Departments is to:

· Disseminate information
· Share records and reports within and between work groups
· Share agendas and minutes
· Circulate draft documents
· Coordinate meetings, appointments and work schedules and
· Support informal/formal approval processes.

Note: The Guidelines do not specifically mention that it may be used for communicating with people in general. We do not knwo what is the nature of email traffic with Central Government officers for official purposes. The above listing gives the impression that it may be very low for several departments and high for others like Finance.

2) References to RTI Act:

a) With effective records management system in place, it [emails] can also be used extensively to handle requests for information under the Right to Information Act, 2005. (para 2.1)
b) E-mail messages created in the conduct of Government business are official records and are the property of the Government of India. They are retained as evidence of business activities and to meet legislative, and government/departmental business requirements. All e-mail messages created or received by employees using the Government of India e-mail systems may be accessed as part of a legal discovery process or Right to Information request. (para 5.1)
c) E-mail messages may contain evidence of business decisions, actions, and transactions. Rules of disclosure are the same as for paper records and mean that departments may be obliged to provide access to e-mail messages in the event of a legal dispute or as part of RTI request. This can include messages on hard copy, on hard drives or on networks. In terms of the Public Records Act, 1993, the e-mail messages are records and are to be managed accordingly. (para 6.2)
d) The Right to Information Act, 2005 also provides that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated. Thus, the electronic records management is now a statutory obligation. (para 6.2)

Note: The RTI Act includes 'emails' within the definition of information under section 2(f). The fact that emails are the property of GOI ensures that no individual oficer will be able to claim copyright protection on emails. I have heard that some countries allow copyright protection for official emails. I have not been abnle to find out which countries have such systems.

3) Emails are whose responsibility?:
Individual employees are responsible for creating, using, communicating and sharing e-mail messages in accordance with their respective Departmental instructions. They are also responsible for ensuring that e-mail records are kept as evidence of business activities and that these e-mail records are available to meet legislative and departmental business and accountability requirements. [para 5.1(I)]

4) Privacy and Security:
Not all the Government of India e-mail systems have security features such as encryption. E-mail should be used with the assumption that messages may be read by someone other than the intended recipient and users should not assume or have an expectation of privacy or security of their e-mail. and confidentiality issues should be considered when choosing e-mail as a means of communication and the employee using e-mail for communication should follow the Departmental Security Instructions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. (para 6.2.2)

Note: It is good that privacy protection is not available to officers using emails in the performance of their official responsibilities.

5) Determining which e-mail messages are records: (para 7.1)
The following are broad parameters to identify which e-mail messages are considered Government of India records:
Messages detailing the position or business of any department;
Messages initiating, authorizing or completing a business transaction;
Messages received from external sources that form part of a departmental record;
Copies containing more or less information than the original record;
Original messages of policies, procedures, guidelines and standards.
Where the records do not exist elsewhere:

Messages related to work schedules and assignments;
Agenda and minutes of meetings;
Briefing notes;
Final reports and recommendations.
6) Are e-mail drafts considered records?: (para 7.1.2)
The decision to retain e-mail drafts depends on the content of the draft and its function. Drafts showing the approval processes are considered records under the Government of India’s records management policy. Therefore, they must be retained and filed by the originator along with any other records that support the approval process.

Note: This is simply fantastic as in many European countries it is not possible to access drafts of official emails or documents if they have not been completed yet. Their laws have an exemption barring disclosure of drafts of hard copy documents also. As the Indian RTI Act does not have such an exemption technically it must be possible to access drafts of emails. Extending this argument further, theoretically it is possible to access drafts of documents prepared by officials in hard copy even before they are finalised. I think this links very well with section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act which requires proactive disclosure while formlating important policies.

7) Filing emails: (para 7.3)
It is not necessary to keep more than one format of an e-mail record. However, the version kept will depend on the departmental policy. For example - if a copy of the e-mail message has been printed and filed or copied in some other system with the requisite details, the original messages may be deleted. Subject to the Departmental internal instructions, the e-mail user has the following three options:

· Retain the e-mail in the e-mail system
· Copy the mails with the requisite details and delete the original version.
· Print the mails alongwith the requisite details and file. The electronic version may be deleted.

Electronic messages, pertaining to the conduct of Government of India business, must remain intact in terms of their content, context and structure:
Structure: e-mails retain their layout and format together with links to attachments and related documents
Content: what information is contained in the message
Context: documents who was the sender and recipient, header information and time and date of the transmittal.
E-mail records retained in electronic format should be filed in accordance with the departmental record management practices and the file numbering system applied to the paper records. This will maintain a link between messages and attachments, and any related paper records created and stored in the section or the department record office. Where an e-mail addresses a number of subjects, it can be added to other applicable folders for cross referencing and to meet retention requirements.

How and where e-mail messages are stored will depend on the technology architecture and resources available in the department. These e-mails may be kept:
In MS Outlook/Exchange
In Lotus Notes
In Personal Directories and Files
In workgroup shared directories or folders
In an electronic document management system
Or, otherwise, may print to paper and filed appropriately.It is important to consider who requires access to the e-mail records when deciding where they should be stored. E-mails stored on personal folders on MS Outlook or in Lotus Notes will be difficult to retrieve by other individuals who may require access to them.

8) Retention schedule for emails: (para 10)
As with any departmental record, e-mail records may have various retention periods depending on their content. It is not possible to apply one rule to delete all e-mail messages after a defined period of time. Normally, e-mails are processed either in the e-file or in the paper file and, in such cases, therefore, their retention period will depend upon the nature and subject of the file and the retention schedule needs not be applied to the e-mails individually.

E-mail records may only be disposed of in conjunction with approved retention schedules. Retention schedules currently used for departmental paper-based records can be applied to e-mail records maintained in electronic format.

9) Deleting emails: (para 10.1)
It is the responsibility of the originator or recipient of the e-mail messages to determine which e-mails are records and must be retained and which can be deleted. The e-mails may be deleted, if Departmental instruction permits, immediately after they have been printed and filed or copied in other system with its attachments and other requisite details. Users should perform regular clean-ups of the e-mail "in-box" and "sent items" folder by filing e-mail records and by deleting the others.
E-mail messages may still be stored on departmental file servers or back-up tapes even after they are deleted from the desktop. Back-ups are performed on the e-mail system on a regular basis. Also, other recipients or senders may keep electronic or paper copies of the e-mail messages, and/or may have forwarded them to others. Users should not assume that because they have deleted the e-mails from computer files they no longer exist.

Note: This explanation is good as a deleted mail may still be recoverable in theory if all steps have not been taken to ensure complete destruction of the record.

There's more in the actual text. I hope this will be to use to the readers. Please circulate this as widely as possible.

And the Empire Starts Rolling Back Openness

2009-06-23T23:54:00.003+05:30

And the Empire Starts Rolling Back Openness

- Venkatesh Nayak and Dr. Rakesh Ranjan

The grapevine hangs heavy with rumours of bureaucrats working overtime to amend the Right to Information Act (RTI Act). This is along expected lines. During its infancy the RTI Act has been instrumental in putting a former Minister behind bars and the initiation of departmental action against several unscrupulous and corrupt officers in many parts of the country. Given this impact of a toddler what would happen when the Act comes of age? The empire seeks to strike back by cutting down RTI to a ‘manageable’ size. The axe is being honed at the very forge where this citizen empowering tool was crafted.
How do we know this? First we must carefully read the Honb’le President’s address delivered at the joint session of parliament. While promising that her government would come up with a public data policy to place all non-strategic information in the public domain, the President clearly stated that the RTI Act ‘will be amended’. All past promises to leave the Act intact appear to have gone with the wind. Dr. E M S Natchiappan the Chair of the parliamentary committee examining the implementation of the Act had publicly said that his committee would not recommend any amendment. That committee report has not seen the light of the day yet. If this position held true, the Hon’ble President would not have mentioned the word ‘amend’ in the same sentence as the RTI Act. There is a clear and present danger to the integrity of the RTI Act.
So where is the axe going to strike? There is no official word yet but a government document placed in the public domain provides vital clues. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) made several recommendations for strengthening the RTI Act- described as the ‘master key to good governance’. The Government of India (GOI) has made up its mind on what to accept.
The first strike is likely to insulate official file notings from public scrutiny. File notings show up the manner in which a decision is reached. It contains opinion and advice tendered by officers. The Manual of Office Procedure requires that the ‘notes’ portion of every file be kept confidential. The ARC said delete these instructions. GOI rejected this advice.
In 2006 the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) burnt its fingers while trying to restrict access to file notings only on socio-economic and developmental matters, minus the names of officers who authored them. The proposal was temporarily shelved thanks to vehement opposition from civil society, the media and MPs of the Left Front. Despite all this GOI has sought 11 extensions from the Rajya Sabha Assurances Committee for reaching a final decision on file notings. At the same time despite several decisions of the Central Information Commission, and a string of instructions and protests the DoPT stubbornly refused to remove information on its website that wrongly states that file notings do not come within the ambit of the Act when clearly they do. The battle lines are drawn. The threat to people’s right to know is not going away soon or easily.
The government has accepted the ARC’s recommendation to enable a public information officer to reject an information request if it is frivolous, vexatious or seeks voluminous quantities of information. If this amendment goes through, the already reluctant public authorities will have a ready excuse to hide information that may reveal corruption and poor-decision making. Appeals and complaints on this account will increase the existing burden on Information Commissions.
Another retrograde recommendation of the ARC was to add the three defence forces to the list of excluded organisations. While this recommendation has not been accepted, a door has been left open to the Ministry of Defence to bring a comprehensive proposal on the subject. GOI’s response reads less like a rejection and more like an invitation to the armed forces to seek exclusion from the RTI Act. A blanket exclusion on bodies or classes of information is anathema to the practice of open, responsible and accountable government. Yet efforts are on to change the locks on some important doors rendering the ‘master key’ useless.
Government has rejected several other more progressive recommendations without much justification. For example, it has refused to alter the government’s domination of the selection committee that recommends candidates to be appointed to Information Commissions. Nor is it in favour of reserving 50% of the seats in the Commissions for non-bureaucrats. The Official Secrets Act and the oath of secrecy will stay on like family heirlooms inherited from the British Raj. Voluntary disclosure documents prepared under section 4 of the Act will not be printed as it is perceived to be an expensive exercise. Instead they will be uploaded on the Internet for the benefit of the less than 6% web-savvy citizenry. No separate funds allocation will be made for improving records management. No officer will be appointed at the district and sub-district level to monitor the implementation of the Act as that could lead to inter-departmental conflict. In short bureaucrats have accepted only those recommendations that serve their interests.
The writing on the wall cannot be any clearer. Sooner or later attempts will be made to roll back several positive features of the Act. Unless every citizen who has made use of the RTI Act stands up to its defence, few may rush to its rescue. The time has come for all of us to repay the debt that we owe to RTI- protect it, nourish it and defend it because we have benefitted from this fundamental right.
[Venkatesh Nayak is Programme Coordinator and Dr. Rakesh Ranjan is external Collaborator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi]

Proposed Amendments to the RTI Act 2005

2009-06-21T21:02:00.008+05:30

Dear Friends,

As you are aware, the UPA government is proposing to amend the RTI Act। An article in the Times of India dated 19 June: (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Proposal-to-exempt-file-notings-may-leave-RTI-toothless/srticleshow/4673325.cms) outlines some of the provisions that could possibly be amended, which correspond with those discussed in our recent notes on the same. We outline them again below:

A) Proposed amendments to exempt file notings:

File notings exempt: If the amendment goes through, file notings will be exempt from disclosure under the RTI Act, apart from those dealing with social and development issues. This means that all file notings that do not relate to social and development issues will be exempt from disclosure.

Granting anonymity to officers: Regarding those file notings which can be accessed, another proposed an amendment will grant anonymity to officers who made them. This means that citizens will no longer have the right to know the names and designation of the officials who gave their opinions or advice on any matter considered by the government, even after the decision is taken.

No access to decision-making process: Another amendment will block any information, legal advice or observation relating to a policy or executive decision which is under consideration. This amendment will deprive citizens’ access to information regarding any decision-making process before a formal decision is made.
What is wrong with these amendments?
a) The RTI Act enables citizens to exercise their fundamental right to access information held by public authorities. RTI is subject to exemptions mentioned in Section 8 of the Act which are by and large in conformity with the list of reasonable restrictions mentioned in the Constitution. By severely limiting access to file notings, the Government will impose an unreasonable restriction on the citizens’ fundamental right to information. In effect the Government is asking Parliament to violate the caveat provided in Article 13(2) of the Constitution that no law will be passed by Parliament or State legislatures that will take away or abridge fundamental rights in any manner.
b) These amendments will deliver a severe blow to the very objective of the RTI Act namely, “to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed.” Accountability is a key attribute of good governance recognised the world over. It is not adequate for the purpose of entrenching accountability to provide access only to the final decisions of a public authority. People have a right to know the details of the decision-making process including the concurring and dissenting opinions expressed by all officers involved. Transparency in the decision-making process ensures that officials record on files only opinions and recommendations that have a basis in law and established norms and legitimate procedures.
c) It is well known that considerable discretionary powers are vested in the hands of the executive to carry on day-to-day admin istration. Restrictions on access to file notings and the granting of anonymity to the officers who made them will only encourage unscrupulous and corrupt elements in the admin istration to act with impunity. Transparency on the other hand will ensure that all officers will give their opinions and act in a responsible manner as they will be subject to public scrutiny.
d) The Government claims that the proposed amendments will allow access to file notings on development and social issues. However in the absence of clear definitions of such terms, these amendments will only increase the discretionary power of officers to deny access to file notings on a majority of issues.

B) Proposed amendment to restrict access to cabinet documents:

Currently citizens have a right to access not only decisions of the Council of Ministers after they are made and the matter is complete, but also the reasons behind the decision and the materials that formed the basis for that decision. Access to Cabinet papers is denied under Section 8(1)(i) of the Act only so long as the decision is pending. The proposed amendment restricts access to cabinet documents, taking away the citizens’ right to access the material which forms the basis of a decision of the Council of Ministers. People will be deprived of the right to know what kinds of materials were considered by the officers suggesting a course of action on any matter that requires cabinet approval.
What is wrong with this amendment?
The proposed amendment imposes unreasonable restrictions on the citizens’ right to access papers relating to the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers. People have a right to know the final decisions of the Council of Ministers and what is contained in the materials that officials have considered when making a decision. High standards of transparency should apply equally at all levels of decision-making from the lowest to the highest tier.

C) Proposed amendment to restrict access to exam-related information:

Another proposed amendment restricts access to exam-related information that may adversely affect the objectivity or fairness of recruitment, examination and evaluation processes.
What is wrong with this amendment?
The RTI Act does not currently exempt access to information the disclosure of which may adversely affect the objectivity and fairness of examinations, recruitment and promotion processes conducted by a public authority. Secrecy in examination and selection processes allows bad decisions, favouritism and even nepotism to go unchecked, because examiners and assessors are never required to publicly justify their decisions.

D) Proposed amendment to hike fees:

This amendment has been suggested to discourage chronic and motivated information seekers. The suggestion is to increase the current fee of Rs. 10 and make citizens pay the actual salary of the officers working on RTI in addition to the costs of photocopying or otherwise accessing the information sought. It appears that this proposal is based on a recommendation by the Administrative Reforms Commission to deal with vexatious and frivolous requests or where voluminous information is sought.

What is wrong with this amendment?

a) When access to documents (other than of A-4/A-3 size) or materials is sought, the only costs currently incurred by the requestor are the costs relating to the reproduction of the information or the supply of sample materials. It is clear from the current RTI rules that there is no empowering provision to require requestors to pay costs relating to the wages of officers, search compilation or other related activities. There is also no provision in Section 27(2) of the RTI Act for making rules that will enable a PIO or any other authority to charge the requestor for wages of officers.

b) India is a country in which more than 80% of citizens survives on less than US$2 per day. Increasing the application fee or making citizens pay for wages of officers working on RTI will only act as a severe disincentive for people who would otherwise have used the Act to access information. The amendment, if passed, will also be exploited by PIOs and other authorities under the Act in order to discourage people from seeking the disclosure of information relating to wrongdoing or instances of corruption. The primary objectives set out in the Preamble of the RTI Act – to create an informed citizenry, contain corruption and enable people to hold government and its instrumentalities accountable – will be defeated if this amendment goes through. The general rule-making power cannot be used to impose unreasonable burdens or create any disincentives for requestors.

How to save INDIA from corruption by using RTI Act?

2009-06-12T14:28:00.004+05:30

How to save INDIA from corruption by using RTI Act?

In this article we have talked about the RTI (Right to Information) act. This act, has given the people, the power to CHANGE the country. The RTI act has made the inner working of the Govt. transparent! If YOU, the average citizen learns to use this act, YOU can change the country.

In this article, we have told you everything that you need to know about the RTI Act, how you can use it, how it affects you etc! Even if you know nothing about “politics” or “laws” do not worry. This article is written in a very simple and easy to understand way keeping the lay man in mind.
If you think that the RTI Act does not affect you, "YOU ARE WRONG!"
If you are a citizen of Indian, the RTI Act has given you a lot of power that you can and must use. For example, next time you ask for a “phone line” or a “water connection”, if you use the RTI Act, you can get your work done quickly. You will not have to make 15 trips to the Govt. offices and bribe and beg the officials to get your work done. RTI has changed all that. Though this article we will show you how to use RTI, to get your work done!
Are the roads outside your house terrible, RTI will help you solve the problem. Is there a problem of un-hygiene in your area, RTI will help you solve your problem.
If you are young and cannot appreciate all the above points, then believe us that sooner or later you will have to go and get some of your work done though Govt. offices. When you do, you will appreciate the power RTI. But, by then it will be too late. Why? Because there is talk about RTI being changed so that the power is taken away from the people. In this article we have showed you how you can fight this and support RTI.
Basically, if you are an Indian, YOU MUST read this! Not only that, do tell as many people as you can to also read this. Do this for your country!
Now, in the next section we shall try to understand what the RTI Act is all about...
Khoj K. Badami

http://www.indiahowto.com/

National RTI Awards 2009

2009-06-05T17:01:00.003+05:30

National RTI Awards 2009

Public Cause Research Foundation invites nominations for the first ever National RTI Awards 2009. Instituted this year, these awards will be given away sometime in October every year to those who have displayed exemplary commitment to RTI.

Despite the power of Right to Information (RTI) to transform Indian democracy, the Act faces stiff opposition from many sections of the government, particularly the bureaucracy. For example many Officers are not performing satisfactorily. Some Information Commissioners, who are the final adjudicating authority under the Act, are perceived to be sympathetic to bureaucrats. But there are many among the bureaucrats who are committed to transparency and honesty. They go over and beyond the call of duty to implement the RTI Act in letter and spirit.

Our intent is to honour and recognize the best among these officers and commissioners. We hope that by recognizing their contribution, they can serve as role models for the bureaucratic community as a whole and encourage others to follow in their footsteps and strive to emulate their achievements. The awards will also serve as an opportunity to gather valuable data about the performance of a large number of PIOs and Information Commissioners across the country. This data can go a long way in identifying shortcomings in the current system of RTI and suggesting possible reforms.

In all, there are five awards instituted in three categories. One award would be given to the most outstanding Information Commissioner who enabled access to correct and complete information to maximum number of appellants and enforced RTI Act in its true letter and spirit. Two awards would be given to those Public Information Officers who provided complete and correct information in maximum number of RTI applications within the prescribed time limit. Two awards will be given to such citizens who created maximum public impact by using RTI Act.

Each award carries a citation, a plaque and prize money of Rs. 2 Lakhs. Apart from the awards, at least a dozen citations would be given away to the Information Commissioners, Public Information Officers and Citizens.

The awards boast of a jury comprising of very eminent personalities - Aamir Khan, Actor and Film Maker; Fali S Nariman, Constitution expert and senior advocate; J M Lyngdoh, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India; Madhu Trehan, Author and media personality; Mallika Sarabhai, Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam dancer and social activist; N R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor Infosys; Dr Prannoy Roy, Chairman, NDTV; Pullela Gopichand, Ace Badminton player and National Badminton coach; Sanjay Gupta, Editor and CEO, Dainik Jagran Group; Santosh, RTI grassroots activist; Justice J S Verma, Former Chief Justice of Supreme Court and Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission.

All Information Commissioners in the country are automatic nominees and they needn’t apply. However, nominations are being invited from Public Information Officers and citizens. They can either apply themselves or someone else can nominate them. One could apply online at www.rtiawards.org or could obtain forms for application from National RTI Awards Secretariat and apply by post.

Last date for filing nominations is 30th June 2009.

For any clarifications, please contact Swati at 9868599427.

2009-06-05T01:06:00.003+05:30

Dear friends,
I am writing to once again alert you to an important development involving interpretation of a crucial section of the RTI Act.
You may recollect that the Central Information Commission had issued a public notice in November 2008 inviting submissions from people on the scope and ambit of section 7(3) of the RTI Act. That notice may be accessed at: http://cic.gov. in/ PublicNotices/ NoticeForHearing- 27102008- A. pdf.
CHRI and a few other parties had submitted their views on how this important section relating to additional fees must be interpreted. The matter related to a second appeal pending before the CIC involving the Institute of Company Secretaries (ICS). CHRI's submission is attached to this email. ICS argued that 7(3) allows the PIO to charge wages of officers, search fees, collation and compilation costs and other similar costs on the applicant. We have strongly opposed this view. A full bench comprising the Chief Information Commissioner Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Information Commissioner, Prof. M A Ansari and Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra heard the case on 24th February, 2009. Two civil society representatives - Shri Sarbajit Roy and Shri Rakesh Gupta were present in addition to CHRI representatives. There was nobody from any of the public authorities except ICS. CHRI and other civil society resentatives argued that there was no scope in 7(3) for forcing the applicant to pay all kinds of fees conceivable under the sun. At the end of the hearing the bench informed us that the decision in this case has been reserved. We have been waiting for the CIC's decision since then.
3 weeks ago, I received by post a notice for another full bench hearing in the same matter scheduled for 8th June 2009. The text of the notice sent to 19 public authorities is copied below. The list of people who have been invited to make submissions and attend this hearing are all heads of Ministries and PSUs such as Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Law, Ministry of Company Affairs, Ministry of Public Enterprises, Chairmen or CMD of the following PSUs: BHEL, BPCL, BSNL, FCI, GAIL, General Insurance Corporation Ltd., IOCL, MTNL, MMTC, National Insurance Corpn. Ltd., NTPC, ONGC, State Trading Corpn. and SAIL. The notice has been copied to me and Shri Roy who had made submissions earlier. We have not been asked to submit our views again. From the cc. list it appears that Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has replaced Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra on the bench. A few days ago this notice has been uploaded on the CIC website at: http://cic.gov.in/PublicNotices /NoticeForHearin g-08062009. pdf Strangely my name and Sarbajit Roy's name have been deleted from the cc list. The notice does not invite suggestions from citizens other than the above officers.
The following questions are bothering me:
1) Why should a new bench be constituted to rehear the matter after the decision has been reserved by a previous bench especially when all members continue to serve on the CIC? It is understandable if the bench had been reconstituted due to the retirement or resignation of a member. However that is not the case here.
2) Why have only a handful of Ministries and PSUs been targeted with this notice?
3) Why does this notice not say that members of the public can also make submissions to the CIC in this matter?
I would urge all friends to circulate this email within their networks। Please ensure that you and your friends send a large number of submissions to the CIC. Please tell the CIC that the PIO cannot charge wages, search, collation, compilation at one's whim and fancy under section 7(3). There is no power for doing so under the RTI Act. You are welcome to use CHRI's submission for formulating your own arguments. Our submission is copied below. Please send your submissions to the CIC at the address given below. If you will be in Delhi or can make a trip to Delhi on the date of the hearing: 8th June 2009 at 4.30 pm at August Kranti Bhavan, please do attend the hearing and oppose any move to empower the PIO to charge exorbitant fees for giving information. If you cannot attend please send your submission to the CIC. If you are too busy to attend the hearing in person please send the response suggested below by email or post.

Suggested Response to be sent by Email/Post

To,
The Registrar,
Central Information Commission
2nd Floor, 'B' Wing
August Kranti Bhawan
New Delhi- 110 066
email: pkp.shreyaskar@ nic.in

Date:
Dear sir,
We have learnt from our network partners in Delhi that the Central Information Commission is rehearing the matter regards the scope and ambit of section 7(3) of the RTI Act. We believe that this section should not be misused to collect wages, search and compilation or other similar kinds of fees from RTI applicants. The PIO does not have the power to charge such kinds of fees under the RTI Act. We have enclosed our detailed arguments about the scope and ambit of section 7(3) of the RTI Act. We urge you and other Information Commissioners on the bench to take these arguments into consideration while deciding this matter. We urge you not to interpret section 7(3) in a manner that is violative of the letter and spirit of the RTI Act.
with best wishes,
sincerely,

Signature of the sender

Text of CHRI's submission to the CIC:
Ambit and Scope of Section 7(3)
of
The Right to Info rmation Act, 2005
Relating to Further Fee

Introduction
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a public notice on 27 October, 2008 seeking people’s views on a matter relating to the issue of further fee payable under the Right to Info rmation Act (RTI Act/principal Act). The text of the public notice is reproduced below:

“WHEREAS, in the aforesaid appeal case [Shri K K Kishore v Institute of Company Secretaries of India – (CIC/MA/A/2008/ 01085)], an important question has arisen as regards the ambit and scope of Section 7(3) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 which deals with charging of further fee to be determined by the CPIO;
2. AND WHEREAS, it has been decided that a Full Bench of the Commission shall hear the aforesaid case involving the above issue.
3. NOTICE is, therefore, given to the general public and to the interested organizations that they may, if they so desire, file written submissions so as to reach the Commission by 2nd December, 2008
4. The Commission is likely to hear the matter in the second week of December, 2008.”

The absence of a uniform interpretation of this provision in the decisions of the Central Information Commission has caused confusion in the minds of information requestors about the kind of fees they are legitimately required to pay while using the Act for accessing information. There is no uniformity of interpretation in the decisions of State Information Commissions either. CHRI congratulates the CIC for electing to consult people in order to formulate a common position on such an important matter.

1. The Scheme of Section 7

1.1 Understanding the scheme of the arrangement of sub-sections and clauses under section 7 is crucial to the interpretation of the provision relating to further fee (also popularly known as additional fee in civil society circles). The margin note to section 7 indicates that it contains provisions for ‘disposal of the request’. The term ‘disposal’ in common parlance is understood as a process of making a decision on a matter that is under consideration. It is not merely a single act but a chain of several actions constituting a process, at the end of which, a definite outcome is both required and expected. The step by step procedure to be followed by the public information officer (PIO) for making a decision on an information request, received under the preceding section (6) of the Act, is described in outline in the whole of section 7.

1.2 Sub-section (1) provides a summary recital of the action to be taken for disposing a request and links it to a time limit. The exception to this time limit is provided in the proviso.[1] The recital summarises the two courses of action open to the PIO while making a decision on the information request –
a) he/she may provide access to information on payment of such fee as may be prescribed or
b) he/she may reject the request for any of the reasons specified in sections 8 and 9.[2]

Both courses of action must be completed in thirty days unless the circumstance envisaged under the proviso requires to be taken into account. This provision is subject to two more conditions both of which have to do with time limits namely, applications forwarded by the Assistant PIO under section 5(2) or transferred by another public authority under section 6(3).1

1.3 Sub-section (2) continues on the topic of time limit and explains the consequence of not adhering to the limit stipulated in sub-section (1).

1.4 Subsection (1) therefore may be said to contain a reference to the parameters that must characterise the ‘disposal process’. Only the detailing of the parameter of ‘time limit’ is provided in this sub-section and in sub-section (2). The details of other parameters that characterise the disposal procedure are dealt with in subsequent sub-sections. It is important to take note of the fact that the parameter of ‘time limit’ – the first to be mentioned in the recital contained in sub-section (1) – is also the first to be dealt with while providing procedural details. Similarly, the option of providing information on payment of fee precedes the option of rejection in this summary recital. Indeed this is the scheme followed in the subsequent provisions where procedural details are described for both courses of action.

1.5 Sub-section (3) contains the details of procedure to be observed where a decision has been taken to provide access to information on payment of further fee.[3]

1.6 Sub-section (4) deals with the duty of the PIO to provide assistance to requestors who may suffer from sensory disability to enable their access to information. This is also in keeping with the scheme outlined in sub-section (1) as it is a part and parcel of the process of providing access to the requested information. If information cannot be read, seen, heard sensed or understood by a person with disabilities mere handing over of the information to the requestor does not amount to providing ‘access’ to information or ensuring the enjoyment of the right to information as required under section 3 of the Act.

1.6 Sub-section (5) indicates how access to printed or electronic information may be provided. Fees are required to be prescribed for providing access to such information. This sub-section contains a proviso which marks the fee mentioned in the main clause, the application fee [section 6(1)] and the fee mentioned in section 7(1), required to be prescribed under the Act, with the characteristic of reasonableness. Furthermore all such fees are required to be waived for people who are below the poverty line. Additional facets of the second parameter are discussed in this sub-section.

1.7 Sub-section (6) provides a remedy for a requestor who is not given access to information within the stipulated time limit. The remedy is linked to the second parameter namely, fees – the requestor has a right to obtain the information free of cost if the PIO fails to meet the stipulated deadline. There is no further reference to the second parameter in subsequent sub-sections.

1.8 Sub-section (7) pegs a caveat in the disposal process where third party interests may be involved. Again this is part of the first procedure, namely providing access to the request. Section 11(1) clearly states that third party procedure may be invoked only if two conditions are satisfied:
a) the PIO should be intending to disclose the information. In other words none of the grounds for rejection of a request mentioned in sections 8 and 9 can be invoked and
b) the information should relate to or should have been supplied by a third party and that third party should have treated such information as being confidential.

1.9 Sub-section (8) describes the second course of action available to the PIO. If the requested information attracts any of the exemptions mentioned in section 8 or 9 the PIO may reject the request.[4]

1.10 Sub-section (9) relates to the first option, namely, providing access to information. However it does not describe any procedure. It lays down an important principle that is intended to guide the PIO. Ordinarily the requestor has a right to receive information in the form in which he/she has sought, namely, photocopies, CDs and floppies or inspection etc. However two caveats are linked to this principle – i) the resources of the organisation should not be disproportionately diverted or ii) no detriment should be caused to the safety or preservation of the record.

This is the narrative scheme of section 7 as enacted by Parliament.

2. Understanding section 7(3)

2.1 The text of section 7(3) is reproduced in full below:

“(3) Where a decision is taken to provide the information on payment of any further fee representing the cost of providing the information, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall send an intimation to the person making the request, giving—
(a) the details of further fees representing the cost of providing the information as determined by him, together with the calculations made to arrive at the amount in accordance with fee prescribed under sub-section (1), requesting him to deposit that fees, and the period intervening between the despatch of the said intimation and payment of fees shall be excluded for the purpose of calculating the period of thirty days referred to in that sub-section;
(b) information concerning his or her right with respect to review the decision as to the amount of fees charged or the form of access provided, including the particulars of the appellate authority, time limit, process and any other forms. ”

2.2 Meaning of ‘further fee’: The PIO is required to send a written intimation to the requestor if a decision is taken to provide the information on payment of further fee. As the noun ‘fee’ is qualified by the adjective ‘further’, a determination must be made as to what is this fee further to. The obvious reference is to the fee that is required to be collected prior to the initiation of this procedure. The only fee whose procedural details are given in the Act prior to this reference is the application fee. The fee mentioned in section 7(3) is ‘further’ to the application fee mentioned in section 6(1). The phrase ‘payment of such fee as may be prescribed’ found in section 7(1) cannot be construed as a category of fee that has an existence independent of the ‘further fee’ mentioned in section 7(3). They are one and the same.

2.3 How should the ‘further fee’ be determined?: Section 7(3) lays down an important principle for determining ‘further fee’. It should ‘represent the cost of providing the information’. The Act does not provide any guidance as to what elements should be included in this cost. This responsibility is vested with the appropriate government; in the instant case – the Government of India, in the context of rule-making powers under section 27 (2).

2.4 Clauses (a) and (b) of section 7(3) explain how information about further fee shall be communicated to the requestor. The fee intimation must contain four parts:
Ø details of further fees representing the cost of providing the information as determined by him/her;
Ø calculations made to arrive at the amount in accordance with fee prescribed under sub-section (1);
Ø request to deposit the fees and
Ø information concerning the right of the requestor to seek review of the PIO’s decision regards the amount of fees charged or the form of access provided, the contact details of the appellate authority before whom a request for fee review may be submitted, the time limit, process and any other forms.[5]

2.5 A cursory reading of the first two parts mentioned above may give the impression that these elements represent two different kinds of fees that a PIO may require the requestor to pay. Such a cursory reading may also give the impression that the fees mentioned in the first part must be determined by the PIO (using his/her discretion) while the amount mentioned in the second part is to be calculated in accordance with the fee prescribed under sub-section (1). This is an erroneous interpretation based on a cursory reading of these provisions. An in-depth exploration of the phrasing is necessary to show that this is an untenable position.

2.6 The term ‘fee‘ is mentioned in the singular in sub-section (1) and in the opening portion of clause (a) of sub-section 3. In clause (a) the term ‘fees’ is mentioned in the plural at three places and in the singular at one place. The use of the singular occurs again with reference to sub-section (1). The use of the plural occurs always in relation to the actions of the PIO. The Act does not restrict itself to the possibility of a requestor seeking from the PIO access to information in one form only. A requestor may seek multiple forms of access such as inspection of some records, photocopies or certified copies of others and certified samples of materials used – all in relation to one subject matter. For example, a citizen may make a request for inspection of all bills and vouchers submitted to a public works department office in relation to the construction of a road, seek a photocopy of the contract awarded to the private agency undertaking the construction work, a certified copy of the work order and certified samples of materials used in the course of the construction. The PIO is required to determine how much fee is required to be paid by the requestor further to the application fee. He is required to provide ‘details’ of the fee chargeable for providing access in each form requested. Hence the use of the plural for the term ‘fee’ in the case of the actions of the PIO.

2.7 The reference to ‘calculations’ in clause (a) is indicative of the arithmetic that a PIO is required to work out for arriving at the details of ‘further fee’ which the requestor will be informed to pay for obtaining the information. The Act does not intend for this arithmetic to be worked out on the basis of the whim and fancy of the PIO or any officer within the public authority or any other authority under this Act. The arithmetic must be based on the fee prescribed by the appropriate government – the Government of India in the instant case. All that the PIO is required to do is to make a determination of the total amount of fees payable based on the rules and inform the requestor of its details and the calculations that form the basis for arriving at such a determination.

2.8 The foregoing discussion clearly demonstrates that there is no confusion in the Act in regards to fees intended to be charged for providing access to information. The PIO does not have any discretion to make a determination of fees outside the purview of the rules prescribed by the appropriate government – the Government of India in the instant case.

3. Understanding the rule-making power in relation to fees payable under the Act

3.1 Section 27 of the RTI Act empowers the appropriate government – the Government of India in the instant case to notify rules for giving effect to its provisions. Sub-section (1) provides for a general rule making power to carry out any of the provisions of the Act. Sub-section (2) is more specific. The text of the provision is reproduced below:
“(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—
(a) the cost of the medium or print cost price of the materials to be disseminated under sub-section (4) of section 4;
(b) the fee payable under sub-section (1) of section 6;
(c) the fee payable under sub-sections (1) and (5) of section 7;
(d) the salaries and allowances payable to and the terms and conditions of service of the officers and other employees under sub-section (6) of section 13 and sub-section (6) of section 16;
(e) the procedure to be adopted by the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, in deciding the appeals under sub-section (10) of section 19; and
(f) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed.”[6]

3.2 An in-depth reading of the foregoing provision makes it clear that only three categories of fees are contemplated under the RTI Act. The first is the application fee mentioned in section 27(2)(b) which is to read with section 6(1) mentioned earlier in the Act. The second is the fee payable under section 7(1) referred to as ‘further fee’ subsequently. The third category relates to fees payable for obtaining information in printed and electronic form mentioned in section 7(5). Section 27(2) does not recognise any other fees under the RTI Act. This entire provision is in tune with the scheme of section 7 explained above.

4. Whether wages of officers, search, compilation and other related costs can be realised from the requestor?

4.1 The Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost Rules), 2005 (RTI-RFCR) were notified by the Government of India on 16th September 2005. According to information available in the public domain, only two amendments were incorporated in the RTI-RFCR pertaining to inspection fees and the inclusion of IPOs as a mode of fee payment. No further amendment appears to have been made till date. The RTI-RFCR also does not contain any reference to a separate category of fees payable under section 7(3) of the principal Act. The fee and cost related provisions are reproduced below:
“4. For providing information under sub-section (1) of section , the fee shall be charged by way of cash against proper receipt or by demand draft or bankers cheque payable to the Accounts Officer of the public authority at the following rates:-
(a) rupees two for each page (in A-4 or A-3 size paper) created or copied;
(b) actual charge or cost price of a copy in larger size paper;
(c) actual cost or price for samples or models; and
(d) for inspection of records, no fee for the first hour; and a fee of rupees five for each fifteen minutes (or fraction thereof) thereafter.”[7]

4.2 When access to documents (other than of A-4/A-3 size) or materials is sought, the only costs realisable from the requestor are costs of reproduction of the information or cost of supply of samples of materials. It is clear from the provisions of the RTI-RFCR that it does not contain any empowering provision for the realisation of costs relating to the wages of officers, search compilation and other related activities.

4.3 The contention: “the absence of a specific reference to section 7(3) in the rule making provisions of the Act and consequently in the RTI-RFCR implies that the PIO/public authority or any authority under this Act can charge any cost on the requestor at will, provided calculations are disclosed as justification” is a figment of imagination, having no basis in law. To act on the basis of such a contention is tantamount to arrogating to oneself powers that Parliament never intended to vest in any person or authority in the first place. To impose such an interpretation on any requestor is tantamount to showing utter disregard for his/her right to seek and obtain information which has been given shape by Parliament, the supreme-lawmaking body in India .

5. Whether Rules can be made for charging on the requestor, wages of officers, search, compilation and other such costs related to providing information?

5.1 There is no provision in section 27(2) of the principal Act for making rules that will enable a PIO or any other authority to charge the requestor for wages, search, compilation and other related costs. However it may be contended that general powers exist under section 27(1) of the principal Act for making such rules. This is also not a tenable position because the rule-making power can be used only to ‘carry out’ the provisions of the Act, not defeat or frustrate the intention behind its provisions. While making rules, the appropriate government – the Government of India in the instant case is required to pay attention to the caveat contained in section 7(5) of the principal Act namely: ‘fee prescribed must be reasonable’.

5.2 India is a country in which more than 80% citizens survives on less than US$ 2 per day. Charging a requestor for wages, search and compilation costs will only act as a disincentive for people who would otherwise have used the Act for accessing information. In effect this will also be used by PIOs and other authorities under the Act to discourage people from seeking disclosure of information relating to wrongdoing or instances of corruption. The primary objectives behind the enactment of this law mentioned in its preamble namely: creating an informed citizenry, containing corruption and enabling people to hold government and its instrumentalities accountable for their actions, would be defeated. Therefore the general rule-making power cannot be used to impose unreasonable burden upon or create any disincentives for requestors.

5.3 In the ultimate analysis it must be pointed out that the costs on account of time spent by officers for searching and compiling information are not borne by them from their pockets. The costs will have to be paid from the taxes that citizens contribute to the public exchequer. Charging such costs on the requestor would amount to doubly burdening the taxpayer which is not what Parliament had intended while enacting this seminal legislation.

6. What options are available to reduce the burden on the public authority where excessive time and resources are required to be spent on providing information to the requestor?

6.1 It is commonplace to quote from section 7(9) and section 7(3)(b) as options available for ensuring that the resources of a public authority are not excessively burdened while providing information in the form or to the extent requested by the citizen. However a more practical solution exists in section 4(1)(a) to tackle this problem.

6.2 Section 4(1)(a) requires every public authority to index, catalogue and maintain its records in a form that makes them easily accessible. Additionally this provision requires every public authority to computerise all records within a reasonable time and connect them through a network all over the country. If this provision were to be implemented in a time-bound manner, access to the records and documents in every public authority would be considerably easier. Time and resources spent by officers to deal with information requests would also come down significantly. This provision has not been taken seriously by many public authorities. This is a major reason why providing access to information is perceived to be an expensive exercise. If a public authority has not created such convenient systems despite the Government’s conscious policy of evolving offices from paper-heavy to less-paper or paper-less status it is only indicative of the lack of foresight on the part of the highest decision-making officers within that public authority.

6.3 Rather than look for ways of creating disincentives for citizens who wish to access information, more attention needs to be paid to set the house of public authorities in digital order. Information and communications technology which India takes pride in developing must be harnessed to serve people’s right to information. The sole purpose behind the existence of any public authority in India is to serve the public interest, not undermine it.

**********

[1] As the time limit is not a subject for this consultation, we will not go into a detailed discussion on the issue in this submission.
[2] As the manner of making a decision of rejection of a request is not a subject for this consultation we will not go into a detailed discussion on this issue in this submission.
[3] This sub-section will be taken up for detailed comment after completing the description of the scheme of section 7.
[4] As the procedure for ‘rejection of information requests’ is not a subject for this consultation we will not go into a detailed discussion on this issue in this submission.
[5] As the last two parts in this list are not the subject of this consultation we will not go into a detailed discussion on this issue in this submission.
[6] As provisions other than those relating to fees are not the subject of this consultation we will not go into a detailed discussion on this issue in this submission.
[7] The first amendment incorporated in the RTI-RFCR increased the time unit chargeable from fifteen minutes to one hour.

कहने में किसका क्या जाता है?

2009-05-08T22:07:00.003+05:30

कहने में किसका क्या जाता है?
चुनाव से पहले गुहार लगी है‘सही’ आदमी को ही वोट दोवो अपराधी न हो, यह गौर करो ।गुहार लगी हैकि यह है दुनिया का सबसे बड़ा लोकतंत्रतंत्र न गड़बड़ाएइसलिए बिलों से बाहर निकलोभाई, इस बार जरूर वोट दो।गाने लिखने-बजाने वाले बरसाती मेंढक भी उचक करआ गए हैं बाहरवो गढ़ रहे हैं गीतया फिर चोरी के काम के लिएकर रहे हैं गानों की चोरीपक्ष के लिए, विपक्ष के लिए, बीच वालों के लिए भी।सज रही है विज्ञापनों की मंडीपोस्टरों के बाजार में गोरपेन की क्रीम-सा निखारलगता है कल रात ही पैदा हो गयाकमाई की फसल काटने लगे हैंतिकड़मी पत्रकार भी।लेकिन जनता बेचारी क्या करेइतने जोकरों के बीचकैसे तय करेकौनसा जोकर उसके लिए ठीक रहेगाकौन है ‘सही’।कह देना आसान हैदेना वोट ‘सही’ आदमी कोलेकिन असल सवाल तो‘सही’ और ‘आदमी’ के बीच ही टंगा हैक्योंकि आदमखोरों की इस बस्ती मेंन ‘सही’ दिखते हैंन ‘आदमी’फिर किसे दिया जाए वोट?

THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961

2009-04-23T10:41:00.002+05:30

If you think that I can’t vote because any candidate is not suitable in my view, all are corrupt, any one are either NAAGNATH or SAANPNATH। If you think what could be change to my vote। THAN think you single vote can be changing our present political scenario…
Please go and cast your vote
……… if u thinks no one is able to take your vote
Than after choose section 49-O of the Conduct of Election rules, 1961

THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961
49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

49L. Procedure for voting by voting machines.-(1) before permitting an elector to vote, the polling officer shall-

(a) Record the electoral roll number of the elector as entered in the marked copy of the electoral roll in a register of voters in Form 17A.

(b) Obtain the signature or the thumb impression of the elector on the said register of votes; and

(c) Mark the name of the elector in the marked copy of the electoral roll to indicate that he has been allowed to vote:

Provided that no elector shall be allowed to vote unless he has his signature or thumb impression on the register of voters.

War clouds over the Election Commission

2009-02-05T23:32:00.003+05:30

War clouds over the Election Commission

"Politics is the ideal of the kshatriya, and the morality of the kshatriya ought to govern our political actions", wrote Aurobindo in 'The morality of Boycott', the last article in his masterly and unparalleled exposition on Passive Resistance in April 1907. The BJP leadership would do well to sit up and pay heed to these words. The Chief Election Commissioner, by asking the President to remove Navin Chawla as Election Commissioner has stuck his neck out for the health of this country's democracy; and every one of those legal and constitutional experts and the usual mandarins in the media castigating the CEC for making this recommendation, are without exception, those with highly remunerative careers drawing sustenance from the politics of minority-ism. People who care about the country and its high democratic institutions should not permit the CEC's courage in putting a spanner in Congress and Chawla's works to become futile and fruitless. This is the time to stand up and break the polite silence over the growing trend to defile and corrupt high institutions where an undeserving candidate's loyalty to this family and the individual tilts the balance at the time of appointment. "Those who don't appoint the Election Commissioner can't remove him", said Kapil Sibal and a truer word hath not been said. There is no UPA, much less a Congress; there is only Sonia Gandhi. She hand-picked the Prime Minister, the NSA, the incumbents to two of the country's most sensitive constitutional posts including the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the two Election Commissioners who have triggered the crisis by planting a constitutional IED inside Nirvachan Sadan. Each and every one of them personally, or someone in the family is a Sonia Gandhi (family) loyalist/close friend. If anyone can remove Navin Chawla, only Sonia Gandhi can. Constitutional experts agree that the last call on the issue can be taken only by the President of India. Not that the President of India can act independently; he/she can ask the CEC to remove an Election Commissioner only if the Cabinet so advises the President. This brings us back to the core theme of this column - when an extra-constitutiona l authority appoints undeserving candidates to high constitutional positions for reasons other than merit, then no person so appointed and who owes his/her ascent to Sonia Gandhi is going to make any move to remove another Sonia Gandhi loyalist. That is the truth about the state of this country's democracy. But will she? Sonia Gandhi, a practicing Christian, breezed into Tirupathi, bypassing the established, mandatory custom of signing the register by non-Hindus who desire to seek darshan of the Bhagwan. If the lady can offer short shrift to the presiding deity of Tirupathi, she can dare anything.If we cut out the verbiage casting aspersions on Gopalswamy Iyengar's character and professional integrity and ignore the hot air ranting of our experts and mandarins, the core submissions of the vendors of politics of minority-ism, including the Law Minister HL Bharadwaj are - 1.. The 'C' in the CEC is only ornamental and not substantive 2.. The CEC cannot recommend, suo motu or otherwise, the removal of any other EC 3.. Navin Chawla will succeed Gopalswamy Iyengar as CECFali Nariman, the jurist who our vendors love to quote on just such an occasion, on the other hand, makes the customary genuflection to his political ideology but nevertheless makes the following core submissions - 1.. The issue falls in a constitutional "grey area" because the constitution is not clear about whether the CEC has suo motu powers to recommend the removal of an Election Commissioner 2.. But to his mind (which is not relevant at all) the CEC has no suo motu power 3.. The Supreme Court had left the issue wide open two years ago when the issue first came up before it 4.. Navin Chawla has no 'right' to automatically ascend to post of CEC. That the senior-most person has been promoted to the post is only government practice and not a matter of law or ConstitutionHad Fali Nariman summoned the courage and taken his argument further in national interest, he would have said that the Chief Justice of India too ascends to his post, no matter how undeserving he or she may be, only because he happens to be the senior-most in the assembly line. The ascent has nothing to do with merit and his appointment is more a matter of practice than a point of law or Constitution. Noted political commentator BS Raghavan (retd.) senior bureaucrat from the Union Home Ministry has made startling revelations about Navin Chawla's extremely dubious antecedents. Excerpts from Shri Raghavan's damning disclosure about Navin Chawla's disreputable past deserve to be quoted at length - "I can boldly assert that I am the only living former civil servant who, as a Member-Secretary of the high power Committee to advise follow-up action on the report of the Emergency Excesses Inquiry Commission chaired by the former Supreme Court Chief Justice, J.C.Shah, had dealt with every aspect of the Commission's indictment of Mr. Navin Chawla, who is currently in the news for the wrong reasons. As part of our mandate, even though Justice Shah himself was an eminent jurist with thoroughness as his forte, in order to make assurance doubly sure, we went into his entire report with great objectivity and an open mind to convince ourselves that his findings were duly substantiated by oral and documentary evidence.At the time of the Emergency of 1975-77, Mr. Navin Chawla was Private Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Kishan Chand (who later committed suicide unable to bear the 'humiliation' following the adverse finding about him in the Shah Commission's report). According to Justice Shah, Mr. Chawla, along with his cohorts in the police at the time, "exercised enormous powers during the emergency because they had easy access to the then Prime Minister's house. Their approach to the problems of the period relating to the citizens was authoritarian and callous. They grossly misused their position and abused their powers in cynical disregard of the welfare of the citizens, and in the process rendered themselves unfit to hold any public office which demands an attitude of fair play and consideration for others. In their relish for power, they completely subverted the normal channels of command and administrative procedures.' ' Shocking material! Mr. Chawla was also found to have exercised 'extra statutory control in jail matters', including 'the treatment of detenues'. Not confining himself to dictating to his boss as to the persons to be arrested, he also prescribed how they were to be treated in prison. For instance, he was for constructing special cells with asbestos roofs to "bake" certain prisoners. Kishan Chand pathetically admitted to Justice Shah that he was not a free agent and Mr. Chawla used to receive instructions directly from Sanjay Gandhi and he (Kishan Chand) came into the picture only to the extent that he was required to fulfill some technical formalities. The L. P.. Singh Committee had no doubt that the shocking material contained in the Shah Commission's report indeed made Mr. Chawla unfit to hold any public office and that he deserved to be summarily dismissed from service without any further inquiry or proceedings, invoking the special powers under provisos (b) and (c) of Article 311 of the Constitution. This precisely was the fate Mr. Chawla would have met with but for the fall of the Janata Government and return of Indira Gandhi to power resulting in the restoration to coveted posts with a vengeance of all those indicted by Justice Shah. Appointing a person with such a background to the Election Commission which is the fountainhead of all other institutions of democracy was itself a brazen defiance of norms of accountability and decencies of public life. This is quite apart from the allegations of bounties received from the Congress Government in Rajasthan and a number of Congress MPs.by the Jaipur-based Lala Chaman Lal Education Trust established by Mr. Chawla and his wife, and the unsavoury speculation engendered by the Government of Italy conferring on him the Mazzini award in March 2005 'in recognition of his efforts to forge a new relationship with Italy and strengthening existing bonds'". (End quote) Now the last is significant for two reasons. The first which tickles my curiosity - how did the UPA government which quakes in fear of Savarkar and his legacy permit their minion to receive the Government of Italy award given in the name of Mazzini, Savarkar's hero? And second, "his efforts to forge a new relationship with Italy" is euphemism for being a committed Sonia Gandhi loyalist and family doormat. This penchant by US and Europe to give awards to anti-Hindu activists is becoming more brazen by the day. This penchant includes Magsaysay awards, sundry Peace Prizes including the Nobel Peace Prize, Human rights awards, and now more recently, the American Library of Congress Kluge Prize for Arun Shourie's 'eminent' historian, Romilla Thapar. Now read this together with the Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan berating the Orissa government for inaction in the fake rape of the nun case because he was "receiving innumerable calls from abroad", and we have impermissible interference by and intrusive interest of foreign governments in India's internal matters. A man who has been indicted for gross human rights abuse during Emergency, a man who was profiteering from an NGO run by his wife, a man who 'persuaded' MPs to part with their MPLAD funds to oil his wife's NGO, and a man who has been publicly held unfit to hold any public office is elevated by Sonia Gandhi as Election Commisioner with a view to delivering him at the end of the assembly line as CEC at the time of the next Lok Sabha elections. This and only this is the issue. The BJP cannot be making polite constitutional noises on Advani's blog nor send nincompoops into TV newsrooms on the issue. Politics is the work of kshatriyas, as Aurobindo pointed out. We need warriors in the BJP who will un-sheath their daggers to fight this no-holds-barred war. The ultimate objective of a political party is to win elections and become the ruling party. If the process is turned into a war, then winning the elections becomes the objective of the war. Noble souls, living by dharma, including kshatriyas enter the battlefield to wage war dharmically. But the true kshatriya, in this case, the BJP must realise that their war strategy is determined by the enemy. If the enemy enters the battlefield determined to win the war at any cost, including playing foul and dirty, then the kshatriya has to change his tactics and fight the enemy effectively to defeat him. Justice and righteousness are the atmosphere of political morality; but the justice and righteousness of a fighter, not of the priest. Aggression is unjust only when unprovoked; violence, unrighteous when used wantonly for unrighteous ends. It is a barren philosophy which applies a mechanical rule to all actions, or takes a word and tries to fit all human life into it. The sword of the warrior is as necessary to the fulfillment of justice and righteousness as the holiness of the saint. Ramdas is not complete without Shivaji. To maintain justice and prevent the strong from despoiling, and the weak from being oppressed, is the function for which the kshatriya is created. 'Therefore', says Srikrishna in the Mahabharata, 'God created battle and armour, the sword, the bow and the dagger'. This is Aurobindo again, in The Morality of Boycott. There is a growing feeling in the Hindu community that the BJP has lost the spirit of the kshatriya which defined the party once. The BJP must get into, not the election mode but the war mode. These elections, which the UPA, by playing dirty has converted into a war, must be fought by the BJP as war. Its greatest inspiration at this time can only be the young and angry Congressman, Aurobindo.

Sandhan: Sandhan: Global Curruption Report 2008

2008-07-11T14:48:00.000+05:30

Sandhan: Sandhan: Global Curruption Report 2008

Sandhan: Global Curruption Report 2008

2008-07-11T13:43:00.000+05:30

Sandhan: Global Curruption Report 2008

2008-07-09T14:47:00.002+05:30

Pro Active discloser of SANDHAN

Global Curruption Report 2008

2008-07-09T13:09:00.002+05:30

Dear All
As we known Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan (SANDHAN) has work on Right to Information since 2003. During this period we achieved several opportunities to prove our work impact at national and international level.
NOW, Sandhan’s activities denoted by Global Curruption Report 2008 (Page No. 64 &65) published by TI. This report is available on Transparency International web site www.transparency.org/publications/gcr. or http://www.waterintegritynetwork.net/page/430/

बंगला देश के डेली स्टार मे माजा दारूवाला अर्तिकल

2007-10-11T13:37:00.001+05:30

Commonwealth Ministers Meet
A real opportunity or more rhetoric?
Maja Daruwala
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=6210

The next two weeks will see London abuzz with various foreign ministers and permanent representatives from across the Commonwealth coming to deliberate on what gets into the communiqués of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Meeting this November (CHOGM). The process of creating these communiqués is long drawn. Issues bubble up from the earlier meetings of foreign, women's affairs and finance ministers that take place in the two years between CHOGMs, and also from the continuum of work developed from mandates given to the Commonwealth Secretariat by the Heads of States at earlier CHOGMs. Officials at the Commonwealth Secretariat gather together all these threads in draft paragraphs, which then get distilled by negotiations like the ones being held this week. Past mandates have included promoting and mainstreaming women's rights into the work of the Secretariat, helping ensure better election practices, raising awareness of HIV/AIDs, leading on debt forgiveness, getting reports back on progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and assisting with constitution making. What the communiqués say decide the future work at the secretariat. A good deal of this is concerned with providing technical assistance to countries that ask for it, raising awareness, and gently pushing unwilling governments to comply with membership obligations in the Fundamental Political Principles of the Commonwealth -- founding documents which are very much based on being obedient to internationally agreed human rights standards. After governments have indicated their priorities and current concerns, a consensus document goes to the Heads of States at their biennial meeting for finalisation. Secretariat officials whose full time job this is, the countries that contribute the most to the Commonwealth's coffers, the host country -- this time Uganda -- and the more populous nations like India and Nigeria, make the running. Since the Commonwealth is not on everyone's political front burner as the most influential of multilateral associations, many officials who go to its meetings are often not properly briefed and, but for a handful, civil society ignores its deliberations: perhaps with good cause. Unfulfilled promises enthusiastically made by Heads of Governments lie scattered like the paper hats, torn streamers and used paper napkins after some annual lodge bash, for the sad janitor to dump into the dustbin till the next jolly occasion comes around. Nevertheless, the potential for taking real action still makes the Commonwealth's meetings a party worth attending, in the hope that some, at least, of the promises will be realised. Last time around, Mugabe's nervousness at being named and shamed for his terrible overlordship of 12 million of his countrymen forced him to pre-empt censure by pulling out of the association, rather than facing the discredit of being suspended. This time around, prior to the November meet, General Musharraf will be careful to doff his general's uniform as promised for something that at least looks like the fig leaf of democratic functioning -- even if Fiji, Maldives and Bangladesh hang on to their exercises in democratic governance. Because the Commonwealth works like a club of leaders acting through consensus it is, in fact, a very safe place for officials and governments to go beyond the posturing and really get to grips with the issues of the day. Barring a handful of very affluent countries the Commonwealth is essentially an association of grindingly poor countries where well over half the population of near 1.4 billion lives on less than $2 a day. These people need real solutions and not rhetoric. The people all know what's wrong. One of the big things that is wrong in most Commonwealth countries is policing. Every year, very few nations from Antigua to Zambia -- and all the other letters of the alphabet in between -- escape the ignominy of being cited for abusive, violent, discriminatory and corrupt policing. Millions experience it everyday. They all know that most police forces need a total overhaul. Governments know how to do it: re-order policing; re-examine how it is actually done on the ground; make recruitment fair, training better and management result oriented, provide reasonable resources, and be strong in monitoring performance and punishing the guilty. This is one side of it, but the most important bit of the improvement project is to make the police more accountable to law and less subservient, less obsequious, to those momentarily in power, and to create systems where the policy is laid down by government and operational responsibility for ensuring the safety and security of the population at large is in the hands of the police leadership. In other words, re-envision police establishments so that they run like essential services for the population, much like the fire service or the post office and not like the coercive force of some foreign power. That old way of policing belongs to colonial times. It should not be the way for democratic governments to use the police. Keeping to those past values and systems is an admission of our inability to be free from the worst influences of that time, and to shame ourselves as sovereign nations. Many excuses are put forward for stalling reforms of essential systems. The issue of lack of resources is always a favourite, never mind the fact that the reform of management practice does not inevitably require or necessitate additional funding. There is, as well, a need to examine if present resources are really well spent and could not be more logically allocated to go further than present wasteful ways allow. Equally, it is more than probable that unreformed policing costs the state and its people much more through significantly impeding internal development, foreign investment and consequent prosperity.In modern times, another crucial reason for looking at a new type of policing is the truth that unreformed policing has proved that it cannot prevent or reduce crime or calm fears about the threat from terrorism. Only policing that has the confidence of the people can do this. This is a singularly important building block for achieving good governance as well.To help the process of moving from grandstanding to implementing workmanlike solutions to bring about good governance -- a key Commonwealth concern -- the Commonwealth could make a start this week by agreeing to bring together a group of experts to help it lay down a new vision of policing. The group could lay down what a new kind of policing should look like; what principles should guide this policing and how this can be brought about, given that countries are struggling for capacity and resources. It could mandate the kind of future technical help the Commonwealth can provide its members so that the process of police reforms is well informed and hastened. There is very good practice on policing in the Commonwealth. Governments will not have to reinvent the wheel, but with a little help from their friends can tap into and adapt experiences of those that have gone some way toward making improvements. For instance, Nigeria has designed a very strong national police accountability mechanism. South Africa has an excellent method for evaluating police performance. The Australians and the UK are constantly struggling to defeat institutional racism, and improving policing in multi-ethnic communities. New Zealand is involved in reviewing its police functioning. The experience of police reform in Northern Ireland is a lesson in creating confidence in minority groups after years of head to head conflict, and the turn around of the Hong Kong police has lessons to offer on drastically reducing corruption. Pakistan's experiments in local control over local policing and, India's recent Supreme Court orders seeking to guide the reforms process, are all at the service of the Commonwealth's membership, if it is willing to listen. Eighteen African nations of the Commonwealth will be represented in London this week. Later, all will be at CHOGM. It seems a shame, if not down right unethical, for leaders of essentially poor countries to spend money on debating fine words rather than sincerely working toward designing workmanlike solutions to fundamental problems that are today blocking democratic and economic development. This summit is in Kampala. African heads need to lead on issues of concern to the continent and not leave it to others to finger point. It's not always easy, but someone has to take a deep breath and take the first step. Otherwise, it is always going to be Big Brother pointing and looking askance at "these nations," and wondering, if anyone will ever get their act together.Maja Daruwala is Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

Right to Information Act, going rural

2007-10-11T13:09:00.000+05:30

Right to Information Act, going rural
Having woven many a success story in cities, the (RTI), which completes two years of coming in the statute books in October is reaching the rural areas too with villages using its provisions to redress their grievances.
Sidhakahna Jot Keshav village in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh is one such example. Five inspired residents of the village filed RTI applications and questioned the district administration about the conditions of the village roads and drains. They also raised questions as why there were no allotments under the 'Indira Awaas Yojna'.
The administration immediately acted and the construction of the roads and drains began in the village. Since then, 32 villagers have been allotted the houses under the 'Indira Awaas Yojna' and the administration has displayed a list on the village wall, containing the names of the villagers eligible for the allotments under the scheme.
RTI activist and Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal says that the RTI is the way to empowering villages, "The very movement started from the rural Rajasthan. RTI is like a life line to the rural India. The Act has shown a great potential to transform the life of rural society." He however admits that there are some hurdles, "The true potential of RTI is still to be explored, specially in the rural India where villagers find it very cumbersome to file RTI applications. The procedure should be simplified and made people friendly." Kejriwal cites the example of Bihar, "Bihar has set a great example by creating a dedicated phone line for RTI. Where RTI can be filed through a phone call. Even an illiterate villager can file his RTI application by a call."
The Act is influencing people to come forward and question the progress on various welfare schemes, creating a positive change in the most backward areas like Eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam and in Maharashtra. According to Chief Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah, "Though the villages are less aware about the Act than the cities, yet there are villages where RTI is being used. In the villages of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra awareness about the Act is quite good and they are using the Act. In fact, slum areas of Mumbai have very high level of awareness regarding the RTI Act." Asked whether the government was planning anything special to spread awareness about the Act in the rural sectors, he said, "No, there is no specific programme on it right now but the NREGA(National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) matches the spirit of RTI." He however praised the efforts being done by media and civic agencies in spreading awareness about the Act.
Maharashtra' s State Information Commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar says, "Villages have recently started using RTI to seek information related to their problems. I have seen some cases where the illiterates come up with RTI application filed by some help from others. The villages are waking up to the power of RTI." He however admits that there is still a lot to be done to create awareness at grassroot level.
Most questions in RTI applications are related to public distribution system, Ration card, BPL card, 'Indira Awaas Yojna', lands, irrigation, corruption in the welfare schemes and day to day working of local village administration says Major Sanjay Yadav, Information Commissioner in UP. RTI applications are being filed on the basic issues of getting rations on the card.
In Ghara Katara village of Shankar Garh block in Allahabad, daily wagers had a tough time arranging a proper meal as they were not receiving rations on their cards. On 19th December 2006 some 21 villagers prepared RTI applications and questioned the administration, the very next day all the ration card holders got their rations. Even the most backward sections of rural societies as dalits, people living below poverty line and women are seeking information related to Prime Minister Employment Scheme, Indira Awaas Yojna, ration card, midday meal, uniform distribution in the schools and the conditions of village roads. There are still some problems in the implementation of the Act in villages but these success stories are the examples of change and through proper awareness and guidance the Act can do wonders. RTI Activist in Rajasthan, Nikhil Dey feels that the key of empowering villages is in the proper implementation and promotion of Right to Information Act.

NREGA - Guaranteed Jobs or Guaranteed Corruption

2007-07-31T22:58:00.000+05:30

NREGA - Guaranteed Jobs or Guaranteed Corruption

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been in operation for almost 18 months now. From the initial 200 the job guarantee scheme has been extended to 130 more districts since April this year. Katni is one such district in Madhya Pradesh. While the dedicated website of NREGA (http://nrega.nic.in) contains stories of successful implementation in different parts of the country, for people living in the villages of Katni corruption and mismanagement are the only guarantee. Here is a sample:
· Mohari a resident of Matwar Padariya village worked for 4 days and was paid Rs. 260/- But the entry in his job card states that he worked for 6 days and was paid Rs. 400/-. Somebody had pocketed Rs. 140/-
· Mohari’s unlettered wife Pyaribai worked for 2 days but had not received a penny in wages until 14th July when activists of Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan visited the village. Somebody had pocketed the entire amount.
· Heerabai and Vidyabai - residents of the same village worked for 1 day each and paid Rs. 60/- But their job card contains an entry for 4 days of work and payment of Rs. 400/- per person. Somebody had pocketed Rs. 680/-.
· Yashodabai and Kamalesh also of Matwar Padariya approached the Sarpanch with a request for jobs but the Sarpanch sent them away claiming that no jobs were available and that they would be informed when jobs turned up. Somebody forgot to give them their unemployment allowance.
· Verification of job cards in the villages of Matwar Padariya, Ghangri Khurd, Ghangri Kala, Kailwara Kala, Badera by Abhiyan activists revealed that the job cards did not have photographs pasted on them. Villagers claimed that they posed for photographs in May-June. Records obtained using the Right to Information Act showed that an NGO based in Katni had been awarded the contract for photographing villagers who applied for job cards, through an open tender process. They were paid Rs. 3.50 for every photograph taken. Somebody forgot to paste photographs on the job cards distributed in these villages. Somebody else forgot to cross-check whether the contract had been completed satisfactorily or not.
· In many cases the Sarpanch or the Secretary collected job cards from the villagers, made entries in the safety and comfort of their own homes and returned them to the unsuspecting owners. Somebody forgot to monitor the activities of the functionaries responsible for implementing NREGA at the village level.
· In Ghangri Khurd people who applied for jobs were asked to dig 70 sq ft of earth to earn Rs. 67/- the minimum wage payable under the NREGS. People worked for 1½ days and gave up as it was impossible even for the best of their able bodied men and women to meet the target. The soil was simply too hard. They informed the Secretary of the Gram Pancayat in writing about their inability to continue work in that manner. The Secretary forwarded their petition to the Chief Executive Officer of the Janpad Panchayat (Block level Panchayat). None of those who toiled for 1½ days has been paid. No action yet on their petition. Somebody forgot to pay these people their dues. Somebody forgot to take action on their petition in a timely manner.
· In 10 out of the 18 villages surveyed by Abhiyan activists in Katni district, work under NREGS began without anybody applying for jobs. The residents were simply asked to go to the work site by the Secretary or the Sarpanch and start work from a certain appointed date. Somebody forgot to educate the residents of these villages that they could formally apply for jobs and indicate the number of days that they wanted to work.
· Many families of Deora Khurd applied for job cards and posed for photographs as well. But their job cards were not handed over. Somebody forgot to distribute the job cards.
Thankfully for the residents of Deora Khurd when Abhiyan activists went visiting, they found a helping hand. Within a day of the activists making enquiries the Sarpanch distributed more than 500 job cards – all done in two days flat (19th and 20th July). Not everybody would be so lucky particularly where there are no civic minded citizens watching over implementation of this law meant to curb poverty and create publicly owned assets in rural areas.
Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan has been actively working for spreading awareness about RTI in the Vindhya Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh for more than four years. Abhiyan activists started educating people about their rights and entitlements under NREGA soon after the State Government announced that the employment guarantee scheme would be extended to Katni. An advanced capacity building workshop was held in June this year for its core members in collaboration with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Activists familiarised themselves with the nitty gritty of NREGA and developed a strategy to use RTI for securing documents and verifying implementation at the ground level.
Five members of the Abhiyan- Dr. Rakesh Ranjan (Convenor), Vishwajeet Maity, Yogesh Pandey, Pramod Pandey and Deepak Srivastava launched a implementation verification campaign on 7th July. They videographed testimonies of people who claimed to have worked under the scheme; the state of their job cards and the entries they contained and the documents that they obtained by using the RTI Act. They submitted a copy of the recording to the District Collector on 16th July based on a major portion of the data about corruption and mismanagement that they had collected. Even as they requested the district administration to conduct an investigation into the matter, the verification campaign continued in other villages. When approached with proof of corruption the District Collector expressed surprise. Her surprise was not at the levels of corruption exposed but the fact that ‘NGOs’ were meddling in government affairs. She is reported to have told the Abhiyan activists that the RTI Act and NREGA were laws passed by the Government. Activists and NGOs did not have any role to play in its implementation!
Abhiyan activists persisted in their efforts. They have sent copies of the recording and the petition to the Secretary Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. The local media highlighted these instances of corruption. When pressured by mediapersons about the action taken on the exposé the District Collector is reported to have convened a meeting of officials on Sunday the 22nd and entrusted the matter to the Block Development Officer for investigation. FIRs are likely to be filed against the Secretaries and Sarpanches of Matwar Padariya and Deora Khurd. Abhiyan activists believe that this is the tip of the proverbial iceberg and corruption would not be possible without collusion between the Panchayat functionaries and their seniors at the Block and District level. They plan to take this campaign to its logical conclusion.

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak & Rakesh Ranjan for CHRI, New Delhi
(Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan is a state-wide network of CSOs and activists involved in public education, advocacy and monitoring of the RTI Act. Sandhan-Katni is the secretariat of the Abhiyan and Dr. Rakesh Ranjan its Convenor. CHRI collaborates with the Abhiyan on RTI related issues.)

Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham: Slowly, Slowly, Unless You Prod Me With RTI

2007-07-31T22:53:00.000+05:30

Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham: Slowly, Slowly, Unless You Prod Me With RTI

Ask any officer who knows something about the RTI Act and he/she will tell you, this law is being ‘misused’ by people to settle grievances. This story is about one such ‘misuse’.

Sukhlal son of Gadhau of Ramnagar in Anuppur district, Madhya Pradesh bought an insurance policy worth Rs. 25,000/- from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in September 1989. He had named his wife Smt. Rambai as the nominee and paid the premiums regularly. The insurance policy was to mature in the 15th year, in September 2004. Sukhlal was killed in a road accident in January that year. The grieving widow informed the LIC office of the accidental death and claimed the insurance amount that was due to her. On 30th September the LIC office sent a cheque for Rs. 25,000/- in the name of Sukhlal and washed its hands off the case. However under the terms of the policy his wife was entitled to double benefit in case of death by accident. She should have been paid Rs. 50,000/- and the cheque should have been drawn in her favour. So Smt. Rambai returned the cheque with a request that the full amount be paid as per the terms of the policy agreement.

Then began the long wait and her frequent visits to the LIC office situated at Kothma Block of Shahdol district adjacent to Annuppur. The huge bureaucracy went on processing her claim without telling her when she would see the light at the end of the tunnel. Fed up with the ‘kind’ treatment at the hands of the LIC office, for 30 months, Smt. Rambai contacted Mr. Sunil Chaurasia a journalist. He also doubles up as the Chairperson of the District Consumer Forum in Anuppur. Mr. Chaurasia made telephone calls to the Branch office enquiring about the progress made on her claim. He was assured that the claim was being processed and that the payment would be made soon. Still there was no sign of the money. On 31st May 2006 Mr. Chaurasia sent a written complaint to the Branch Manager informing about the lack of progress made on the claim. LIC did not bother to respond to that complaint at all.

Fed up with the lack of response Mr. Chaurasia filed an RTI application with the PIO of the Branch five months later. On 23rd November he submitted an RTI request seeking the following information:-
1) Details of action taken on the complaint sent by him in May that year.
2) Name and designation of officers responsible for not finalising Smt. Rambai’s claim along with information about legal provisions for punishing such officers.
3) Details of additional facilities and benefits available to nominees whose claims had been put on the backburner in this manner.
4) By which date would the cheque in lieu of payment would be sent to Smt. Rambai.
5) Reasons for non-payment of the claim till date.

Mr. Chaurasia did not even receive an acknowledgement from the PIO. As has become tradition in many government offices after the enforcement of the RTI Act Chaurasia’s application set the wheels in motion. The officers of the LIC Branch held a meeting on the 24th. They issued a cheque for Rs. 33,344/- being the first instalment of the payment on the 25th and made sure that it was delivered to Smt. Rambai on the 26th! Hail RTI! It worked like a magic wand. Smt. Ramabai’s story had a happy ending.

Nevertheless Mr. Chaurasia was not about to sit contented. Accountability of erring officials had to be fixed. After waiting for 30 days for a response from the PIO he filed an appeal with the Appellate Authority. LIC returned his appeal letter asking him to file it before the Appellate Authority (AA) at Shahdol. Earlier in May when Mr. Chaurasia had sought details of the PIO and Appellate Authorities the LIC office had informed him that all appeals under the RTI Act would have to be sent to Bhopal. Another case of a public authority misleading citizens under the RTI Act. Mr. Chaurasia filed a second appeal before the Central Information Commission on 19th March 2007.

The CIC issued notice to the PIO and the AA. Both parties were summoned for a hearing on 25th July, 2007. Meanwhile LIC sent a rejoinder to the appeal filed by Mr. Chaurasia. The Zonal Manager argued that Mr. Chaurasia was asking about the claims of a nominee without proper authorisation letter and that he was unrelated third party to the case. Nevertheless LIC claimed that it had sent him a letter on 12th December informing him that the cheque for Rs. 33,344/- had been sent to Smt. Rambai. It must be noted here that this letter never reached Mr. Chaurasia. He received a copy of that letter only with the rejoinder sent to his second appeal filed before the CIC. The Zonal Manager stated that a technical problem in the computer module was the reason for the delay in payment as a result of which the payment could not be processed on time. He stated that on 9th July 2007 Rs. 4,707/- had also been paid as interest for the period of delay. He also claimed that Shahdol was a remote place and officers were being transferred frequently. Hence the RTI application could not be processed on time and that they would ensure proper training for officials.

On the day of the hearing the PIO and another officer representing the AA attended the hearing. Mr. Chaurasia preferred to send an authorised representative to argue his case. The Commission asked the PIO to explain the case. When he explained the details of the case and stated that the insurance amount had been paid along with interest the Commission asked the appellant’s representative as to what further cause remained to be examined in this case. The Commission was reminded that the appeal was not about the claim of Smt. Rambai. It was about the details of action taken on Mr. Chaurasia’s complaint. There was simply no question of treating him as third party in this case. Though information was given on points #3 and 4 the information requested at # 2 and 5 was pending. This related to accountability of officers responsible for the delay. The Commission agreed with the view that fixing accountability was important as there was undue delay in the settlement of the claim. The LIC officers agreed that the delay was of an inordinate nature. But they could not pinpoint responsibility of officers for technical problems faced with the computer system. This was another case of a public authority misleading the Commission. The appellant’s representative pointed out that the chain of decision making, supervision and accountability mechanisms have to be disclosed proactively under the Act. This RTI application sought similar information with reference to a particular case.

Then the LIC officers pushed forward a letter purportedly signed by Smt. Ramabai with her thumb impression in the presence of two witnesses stating that her claims had been settled and no further action was necessary. The appellant’s representative argued that such documents are often created by using pressure and coercion, so not much attention need be paid to it. Furthermore the LIC officers had to justify why they did not provide the appellant with all the information requested. The Commission agreed with this view and ordered LIC to disclose the identity of all officers who were involved in the decision making process on Smt. Rambai’s claim.

Mr. Chaurasia had indeed ‘misused’ the RTI act to settle a grievance. This had become necessary because the existing mechanism for grievance redressal simply did not work for months on end. The statutory time limit for responding to RTI applications, the threat of penalty for contraventions and most importantly the humiliation of having to record reasons for acts of omission and commission are the main reasons why RTI works where nothing else does. Within 2 days of filing the RTI application the first instalment was paid. Within a month of receiving the notice from the CIC the interest was paid. RTI can have an electric effect when LIC forgets its motto – Yogakshemam vahāmyaham.

But merely using RTI like a magic wand is not enough. Accountability must be fixed. Mr. Chaurasia is waiting for the name of officers who worked on Smt. Rambai’s claim. He plans to take the matter up with the insurance ombudsman - the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

(Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham the motto of LIC is a phrase picked from Lord Krishna’s statement in Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord promises to be the purveyor of the wellbeing of his devotees who repose their faith in him.)

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak for CHRI Delhi.

(Sunil Chaurasia is Chief Editor Koylanchal Times and a core group member of the Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan network on Madhya Pradesh. CHRI works with the Abhiyan on RTI related issues.)

Resolution passed by the national convention of RTI activists in Pune

2007-06-01T00:16:00.000+05:30

Resolution passed by the national convention of RTI activists in Pune held on 12th and 13th May with respect to the functioning of CIC and SICs.

If any PIO says that information cannot be provided because the files are missing, the following action should be taken in all such cases:
Public authority should be asked to provide a list of officials who were supposed to be the custodians of that file before it went missing.
An FIR should be registered against those officials by name
Simultaneous departmental enquiry should be ordered by the Commission to fix responsibility within a week.
Commission should direct the public authority to impose penalty on guilty officials within the next 7 days of fixing responsibility.
The Commission should direct reconstruction of file and the information should be provided to the citizen.
For every case of loss of file, the Commission should also enquire whether it was some deficiency in record maintaining systems of the department which led to loss of files. If so, they should direct appropriate changes in systems under section 19 (8)

If files are reported lost at Information Commission itself, the Commission should take all the steps listed above for loss of files by PIO.
Show cause notice must: If there has been any delay in responding to an RTI application, a show cause notice should compulsorily be sent to the PIO to explain the reasons for delay or denial of information. If it relates to denial of information under section 8 or any other section and the citizen alleges malafide, then the Information Commission must compulsorily issue a show cause notice. There should be an open hearing thereafter the issue of show cause notice in which both the parties should be called. An order for either imposing penalty or dropping penalty should be passed in open court rather than behind the back of the parties.
Case should not be closed till complete information is received and the citizen reports satisfaction.
If any public authority does not receive RTI application, does not accept fee or harasses citizen in any other manner in submitting application or providing receipt or acknowledgement, such complaints should be directly accepted under section 18.
For every second violation by any PIO, Information Commission should invoke section 20 (2) in addition to section 20 (1)
Information Commissions should ensure that the penalties imposed by them are recovered and are entered in the ACRs of the officials.
If a citizen invokes life and liberty clause, the Commission should directly entertain such complaint under sec 18 and should dispose it off within 48 hours.
“Life and liberty” should be defined as provided under article 21 of the Constitution.
It has been seen that some Information Commissioners are accepting the hospitality of public authorities whose cases, they are hearing. This is being done under the garb of holding RTI workshops in those public authorities. Information Commissioners should immediately stop doing this. The Commissions should come out with a model code of conduct on the lines as it exists for judges.
If any state has more than one Information Commissioner, they should be spread out in the state rather than holding hearings from only one city.
No Information Commissioner should be allowed to deal with any Department where he/she served any time in the past, as there is a direct conflict of interest.
Both parties should be treated equally. Often, the officers from public authority are seen to be having tea with the Commissioner before hearing. This severely affects the independence of the commissioner and his ability to ac against the officials.
Both parties should be heard in every case. Principles of natural justice should be respected.
Many Commissioners do not pass orders in open court, which is violation of rules. Every order should be passed in open court.
All Information Commissions should themselves abide by section 4 disclosures.
No format should be insisted upon for filing an appeal. Similarly, only one copy of appeal should be asked rather than three or five copies as is being done today.
Many Information Commissions have not submitted their reports under section 25 of RTI Act. It is requested that they submit it soon.
Some information commissions are providing orders for a cost. This should be stopped forthwith. Orders should be provided free of cost.
Every case in which decision is passed in favor of the citizen should lead to appropriate compensation for costs incurred and for mental harassment. This should be recovered form the salary of the responsible officer as in the case of Chhattisgarh.
PIO and AA should not be allowed to be represented by anyone including lawyers. They should appear in person.
All orders should be in a format so that the basic information about that case is reflected in every case. We are developing such a format through consultations and will make our suggestions soon.
Acknowledgement no should be given to the complainant/ appellant on the spot, if he is filing by hand or should be dispatched within 24 hours of receipt by post.
The Commission should ensure that the first hearing in every matter should take place within 30 days of receipt of complaint/ appeal and there should not be a gap of more than 10 days between two hearings.
“Human Rights” should be interpreted to mean a defined in various international treaties to which India is a signatory.
The offices of Information Commissions should be made disabled friendly and should be at such places where they are easily accessible to the public.
All hearings at Information Commissions should be video recorded.
The Information Commissions may like to create awareness, but they should do it themselves rather than sub-letting funds to NGOs or other agencies.

Third National Convention of the NCPRI

2007-06-01T00:11:00.000+05:30

On behalf of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) we would like to invite you to participate in the third National Convention of the NCPRI. NCPRI will host its third National Convention on Right to Information from September 28-30 2007 in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The first Convention was held in Beawar, Rajasthan in 2001 and the second convention wa sheld in New Delhi in 2004. The Convention will offer an opportunity for all of us to share our experiences on the Right to Information. Since representatives of various campaigns and groups working on the RTI from across the country will participate in this Convention, it will also work as a platform for all of us to network with like-minded groups and individuals and take our work forward. We hope you and representatives from your campaign, group and or organisation can join us for the Convention. Since NCPRI is a Campaing run on donations made by citizens, we will request all participants of the Convention to bear their own costs for travel to Ranchi. A registartion fee of Rs. 100 will also be charged from each participant to cover basic food and accomodation costs. This is a preliminary letter to inform you all about the Convention, we hope you will block these dates. A more detailed letter of invitation, along with the agenda and programme details will follow soon.

RTI restores people’s right to water in Keolari

2007-04-20T14:06:00.000+05:30

RTI restores people’s right to water in Keolari

In the more developed countries of the West RTI is often understood as a civil liberties issue closely connected with people’s right to freedom of speech and expression. In many countries of Eastern Europe it is connected with the freedom of the print and electronic media to report on the actions and decisions of government bodies. While there is no gainsaying this position, experience in developing countries like India shows how crucial RTI is for the realisation of fundamental economic and social rights for the underprivileged. The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) ratified by more than 150 countries including India recognises every human being’s fundamental right to food, water, education, housing, health and gainful employment and makes it mandatory for signatory States to take steps to make these rights available for their citizens. The Supreme Court of India has on more than one occasion declared that the rights to food, water, shelter, health and adequate housing are implied within the meaning of the fundamental right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. They have the same constitutional status as other fundamental rights explicitly mentioned in the Constitution and any person who is denied these rights may move the courts seeking redress.

Over the decades judicious interpretation by international human rights bodies has expanded the scope of these fundamental rights beyond mere physical access to basic amenities and services such as food, water, housing, health and education. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), set up under the ICESCR to monitor compliance of signatory States on a regular basis, recognises information accessibility as an inseparable component of these rights. For example, the CESCR declared in 2002 that the right to water includes every human being’s right to access information about water related issues that affect him/her. “Individuals and groups should be given full and equal access to information concerning water, water services and the environment, held by public authorities or third parties” the committee said. (for a complete text of CESCR’s General Comment on the right to water click on http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/a5458d1d1bbd713fc1256cc400389e94?Opendocument) The experience of the residents of Keolari demonstrates how information accessibility can protect and restore people’s right to water.

Keolari village situated within the jurisdiction of Katni janpad panchayat in Katni district, Madhya Pradesh, is home to about 2,500 people. Munnalal Patel is an elected Pancha (member) of the Keolari gram panchayat. His father had donated an open well to the panchayat in 1997 hoping that it would be maintained by them for people’s use. This well situated on the edge of the public road that leads to the panchayat office is one of the only two sources of potable water available within Keolari. The second is a tube well sunk for the use of the government run middle school situated nearby. A third source – another open well – is situated on the outskirts of the village at a distance of more than 1 km from the panchayat office. Except for a handful of rich families which own private tube wells on their property, most of the residents of Keolari depend on the well located in the middle of the village.

In December last year (2006) Munnalal began constructing a house on a small plot of land adjacent to this public well. On the 11th of the same month he encroached upon almost 10 ft of land belonging to the panchayat and constructed a boundary wall around the well in a bid to claim it for himself. Villagers whose access to the well was cut off tried to reason with Munnalal, in vain.

Later the same day, about 65 villagers drafted a complaint letter against this encroachment and submitted it to the Sarpanch. The Sarpanch Smt. Panchhibai Patel maintained that there was no case of encroachment and that Munnalal had acted within his rights on his own land. Not willing to be cowed down by the inaction of the Sarpanch the complainants posted copies of their complaint to the Tehsildar and the chief executive officer of the janpad panchayat praying for remedial action. Neither officer bothered to respond to the complaint.

On 9th January (2007) a samsaya nivaran shivir (public grievance redressal camp) was held in Keolari. Such camps are routinely organised by the district administration to help resolve problems of villagers on the spot. This camp was attended by senior officials various departments. Villagers filed their complaint about the encroachment of panchayat land and the illegal take over of the public well by Munnalal. No action was taken on this complaint. It seemed like the entire administration was colluding with the wrongdoer.

Two days later the disappointed villagers sent their complaint to the District Collector. No action was taken at this level either. Meanwhile Munnalal began threatening the families of villagers who had signed on the complaint. Fed up with the inaction of the gram panchayat and janpad panchayat officers the villagers managed to get the local editions of popular hindi newspapers like Dainik Bhaskar and Navbharat to publish this story. Even this move did not have any effect on the administration. Deprived of access to the common well, residents began drawing water from the tube well situated at the village school. Munnalal and his henchmen began troubling the women relatives of the complainants who walked up to the tube well to fetch water. When authorities refuse to take action against wrongdoers they only end up providing a cloak of impunity to the latter.

Ravi Patel, one of the complainants heard about RTI at an awareness camp organised by the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan in a nearby village. On 21st February he visited the office of Sandhan, the secretariat of the Abhiyan situated in Katni, seeking advice for solving Keolari’s problem. Volunteers of the Abhiyan coached him in the uses of the RTI Act and helped him draft an information request. In his application Ravi Patel asked the following questions –

1) Name and designation of the officer who was responsible for taking action on the complaint filed by the 65 signatories.

2) Daily progress report of action taken to investigate the complaint.

3) Name and designation of all officers who are empowered to take action on the basis of such complaints.

4) What action would be taken by the administration against officers who were negligent to take action on the complaint?

5) The period within which action would be taken to clear the illegal encroachment on panchayat land and end illegal custody of the public well.

Ravi Patel and Vishwajeet Maity, an Abhiyan volunteer managed to submit the application at the janpad panchayat office on 22nd February. However when they visited the Tehsildar’s office to file a similar application they met with resistance. The Tehsildar reasoned that the information they sought was exempt from disclosure under Section 8, so there was no point to accepting the application. Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Convenor of the Abhiyan visited the Tehsildar’s office the next day to find out why he had refused to receive the information request. He demanded that the Tehsildar record his refusal in writing as requestors had a right to know the reasons for refusal. The Tehsildar, hard pressed by the persistence of Ravi Patel and the Abhiyan, assured them that he would investigate the complaint and that there was no need to file the RTI application.

Not to give up easily, the requestors and the Abhiyan volunteers demanded that he reply to the RTI application first instead of acting upon the complaint. They also warned him that they would write to his senior officers about his lack of compliance with the RTI Act. Fearing the possibility of a penalty and disciplinary action under the RTI Act, the Tehsildar agreed to receive the information request and advised the applicant and the Abhiyan volunteers to come back to his office on 10th March for a reply. He also summoned the Deputy Tehsildar and the Revenue Inspector in their presence and rebuked them for not acting upon the complaint.

Meanwhile Ravi Patel wanted to strengthen their case with documents to show that the disputed well was indeed common property. He filed an RTI application with the secretary of the gram panchayat seeking copies of the gift deed signed by Munnalal’s father and details of any funds spent by the panchayat on the maintenance of the well. Ravi Patel received the requested information within two days. The documents showed that Munnalal’s father had indeed gifted the well to the panchayat in 1997. The panchayat had spent Rs. 11,608/- in July that year for strengthening its platform and walls.

Armed with this information, volunteers of the Abhiyan visited Keolari on 23rd February to collect photographic evidence of the encroachment and the illegal occupation of the well. They were pleasantly surprised to see the Revenue Inspector and the village patwari taking measurements of the disputed property. They categorically told Munnalal that he had illegally encroached on Panchayat land and taken custody of the well. They served a notice on him requiring him to demolish the wall within a week. If not the panchayat would demolish the wall and realise the demolition related expenses from Munnalal.

Ravi Patel visited the office of the Abhiyan on 28th February with the good news that Munnalal had begun demolishing the wall. Villagers were able to collect water from the well as before. Ravi Patel is waiting for 10th March to collect the information from the Tehsildar’s office

Meanwhile Munnalal’s brother continues to threaten people for complaining to the authorities. But the villagers are not so scared like before because they have realised they have the power of RTI with them now. They have learnt that when nothing else succeeds, RTI will help them force the public authorities to work according to the established rules and norms. They have succeeded in protecting their fundamental human right to water using their right to information as a tool.

{Dr. Rakesh Ranjan is Convenor and Vishwajeet Maity, an active volunteer of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan – a network of advocates and activists working to spread awareness about RTI in more than 20 districts. CHRI works with the Abhiyan to build capacity of civil society to use RTI to improve governance in Madhya Pradesh.}

Stealing Money meant for Children – what happened next?

2007-04-19T17:11:00.000+05:30

Stealing Money meant for Children – what happened next?

The reader may remember this story circulated by CHRI a few months ago. By way of recollecting in brief this is what had happened –

Mr. Vishwajeet Maitee of Katni district in Madhya Pradesh had filed an RTI application seeking information about the rates at which first aid kits were procured for use in the teaching centres established under the Indus Child Labour Project. This project, aimed at rehabilitating rescued child labourers by providing them with education and vocational skills, is sponsored by the International Labour Organisation. This project is being implemented in five districts including Katni in MP.

The RTI intervention revealed gross overpricing of the medical kits amounting to a loss of more than Rs. 100,000 for the project. Subsequently spot checks conducted by Dr. Rakesh Ranjan of Sandhan, Katni as to the contents of these kits revealed that the supplies were of poor quality.

While this story was being read and discussed in cyberspace, Dr. Rakesh Ranjan decided to take the matter right up to the ILO. He wrote to the concerned officers at ILO attaching copies of all documents and bills collected as evidence. The project managers wrote back to the District Collector Katni requesting an inquiry into the matter. The Collector issued a show cause notice to the Project Director of Indus based in Katni. Subsequent proceedings led to the recovery of Rs. 80,000/- from the supplier. A small victory against corruption indeed.

The supplier contends in his defence that he has to pay bribes in order to secure a supply contract in his favour despite a competitive bidding process followed by the public authorities. Hence the overpricing of the medical kits. RTI activists in MP are now formulating strategies to unmask corrupt officials. This is a hard task as very often favours given to officials do not leave a paper trail.

But there’s more on RTI interventions relating to the Indus Project coming in our next despatch.

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak for CHRI, New Delhi.

(Mr. Vishwajeet Maitee is an active member of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan. Dr. Rakesh Ranjan runs Sandhan - an NGO based in Katni and coordinates the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikaar Abhiyan a state-wide network of CSOs and activists involved in public education, advocacy and monitoring of the RTI Act. Dr. Ranjan also collaborates with CHRI's Access to Information Programme.)

Stealing Money meant for Children

2007-04-19T17:07:00.000+05:30

Stealing Money meant for Children

The Madhya Pradesh State Government runs the Indus Child Labor Project funded by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The main aim of this project is to provide primary education to erstwhile child labourers. It also provides for their professional skill development. This three-year project is being implemented in five districts namely, Katni, Jabalpur, Mandla, Satna and Sagar since January 2004.

Indus Project is implemented through a registered society - National Child Labour Project (NCLP) which receives monies from ILO through the State Government and makes disbursements. The District Collector is the President of NCLP and the District Labour Officer is its secretary. Five Project Directors are appointed for overseeing the execution of the project. In Katni district alone a sum of Rs 31,80,750 has been earmarked for the execution of this project.

Rumours about corruption in the implementation of Indus Project have existed since its inception. But citizens had no means of proving the same as they did not have access to any documentation before the central RTI Act came into force. MP had passed its own RTI Act in 2002 but it was not implemented as the rules had not been made yet. When citizens tried to apply for information under the Departmental RTI orders issued by the State Government in 1997, information was denied on the ground that these orders did not apply to UN sponsored projects.

An RTI activist working in MP along with the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan, got to know of the widespread corruption in the Indus project. He decided to file an application under the RTI Act to find out the truth.

He filed his application with the PIO of the Indus Project Office in Katni on December 7, 2005. He asked for the following information -

1) The number of first aid kits bought for Teaching Centres being run under the Project in Katni;

2) The rate at which the kits were bought

3) An inventory of the contents of the kit

4) A copy of the proactive disclosure under Sec 4(1)(b).

He received the information within 17 days after payment of additional fees. The Public Information Officer informed him in writing that 40 first aid kits were bought at the rate of Rs. 3,500/- per kit. These kits were bought in August 2005 and supplied to 40 Training Centres in Katni in September. This data alone did not reveal any evidence of corruption.

He decided to ascertain the prevalent market rates for the first aid kit. He sought quotations from the local distributors of three companies (one Indian and two multinational) which sold similar kits. The quotations received were as follows -

Paras Pharmaceuticals (Indore based company) - Rs. 760/-

Alembic Pharmaceuticals (olkata based MNC) - Rs. 930/-

Glaxo Smithkline Beecham (another well known MNC) - Rs. 970/-

The implementing agency spent Rs. 1,40,000/- for buying 40 kits @ Rs. 3,500/- per kit through an open tender process where the contract for supply is awarded to the lowest bidder. Had the agency bought the kits from the open market from the most expensive distributor - Glaxo - it would have had to spend only Rs. 38,800/- It is crystal clear - somebody has pocketed more than one lakh rupees in the procurement process. There are 200 Indus Teaching Centres in MP. If corruption in procurement is the prevalent norm in all five districts the scandal could run into several lakhs of rupees.

Dr. Rakesh Ranjan of Sandhan Katni who is also the Coordinator of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan decided to investigate the matter further. Along with a journalist from Dainik Jagran, he visited 10 Teaching Centres to check the kits on the spot. They were astonished to find that noe of the kits displayed any company logo. In three centres the kits were found to be empty and the contents of seven kits in other centres were of cheaper quality than that mentioned in the quality specifications. This scandal was highlighted in the local newspapers. But no action has been initiated by the district administration so far. Dr. Ranjan will be sending a complaint along with documentation of his findings to ILO and the vigilance authorities of MP Government.

Some people feel no shame or remorse for stealing money meant for underprivileged children.

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak for CHRI, New Delhi.

(Dr. Rakesh Ranjan runs Sandhan - an NGO based in Katni and coordinates the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikaar Abhiyan a state-wide network of CSOs and activists involved in public education, advocacy and monitoring of the RTI Act. Dr. Ranjan also collaborates with CHRI's Access to Information Programme.)

Kaayam churna or Gaayab churna?

2007-03-12T00:24:00.001+05:30

Kaayam churna or Gaayab churna?
RTI unearths corruption in the procurement of medical supplies in a PSU

Should you happen to casually walk into a primary health centre in any of India’s small towns what kinds of medicines would you expect to find stocked on its shelves? Life saving medicines for treating snake bites and rabies? Paracetamol and antibiotics for those suffering from some water borne infection? Vaccines for inoculating babies from life-threatening diseases? Tablets and injections for those suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes? Think again. If you happened to visit one of the primary health centres run by the South Eastern Coal Fields Ltd. you might just stumble upon hair oils, massage oils and even, believe it or not, aphrodisiacs euphemistically called vitality restoring tonics. Or perhaps you would find them only on paper – shown as ayurvedic medicines purchased at exorbitant rates.

Rumours of corruption in SECL are neither rare nor recent. Until the coming of the RTI Act people had no way of verifying these allegations spoken in hushed tones. After all SECL has been proudly announcing on its website its unique record of earning profits ever since its inception in 1986. This public sector undertaking is the single largest producer of coal amongst the eight subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd. In 2005-06 alone SECL extracted 83.02 million tons of coal from its mines situated in the districts of Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur in Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur, Korba, Koria, Raigadh and Surguja in Chhattisgarh. SECL has claimed total sales worth Rs. 7127.19 crores during the same year, and earned a pre-tax profit of Rs. 1,286 crores (post tax profit = Rs. 264.67 crores). One would hail a company with such an impeccable earning record as a shining example of the robustness of the fast shrinking public sector in India. But a team of committed citizens have begun shining the torch of RTI on dark deeds within SECL seemingly buried away underneath mountains of coal dust.

Sunil Chaurasia and Narendra Devangan both belonging to Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh and Satish Gupta of Manendragarh from Koria district of Chhattisgargh filed RTI applications with the PIO of SECL situated at its head office in Bilaspur during the months of February – April 2006. They sought the following information–

1) Names of all medicines procured by SECL for distribution through its primary health centres and its OPD clinics in the Hasdev coal mines area during the financial year 2005-06. (They cater exclusively to the employees of SECL and their families)
2) Quantity of medicines procured during the same period.
3) Supply price of each item.
4) Copies of all purchase orders issued by SECL for these medicines.
5) Name and contact details of suppliers who bagged the purchase order.

All three applicants received the requested information within the 30 day deadline stipulated in the RTI Act. The records showed that SECL had issued two purchase orders worth a total of Rs. 4,47,422/- to a certain R S Trading Company on 02 November 2005 for supplying ayurvedic medicines such as rajwadi chyawanprash, basant kusumakar ras, svarna bhasm, massage oil, divya hair oil, sona-chandi chyawanprash, shilajit capsule, paurush jeevan capsule, chintagani ras, makardhani vari and many other ayurvedic items :
(P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/479 and P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/480).

Two more purchasing orders were issued on the same day to two more companies namely, Messrs. Sampath Kumar Lakshminarayan of Manendragarh in Chhattisgarh (P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedic medicines/482 ) and Soni Medical Store of Dhanpuri in Madhya Pradesh (P.O. SECL/HSD/MMW/SO/O5/06/Ayurvedic medicines/481) for supply of ayurvedic medicines worth – Rs. 99,786.90 and Rs. 1,20,387.50 respectively. Apart from the medicines mentioned above these companies were asked to supply jhandu soap herbal, trishul tablets, kamoddeepak churna (can it be any more explicit than this), sundari kalp forte, rose water and the commonly used disinfectants like savlon, dettol and phenyle. All P.O.s had been signed by the Chief General Manager.

Armed with these documents our RTI trio worked for several weeks crosschecking the data along with a team of about 25 committed volunteers. The P.O.s issued to R S Trading Company mentioned its contact details as a shop situated behind State Bank of India at Manendragarh, Chhattisgarh. Satish scoured the entire area but did not find any trace of the supplier. Soni Medical Store turned out to be a small retailing store operating on a floor space of 10ftx10ft and the salesperson had no clue about the supply of such a huge order. Fictitious companies were shown as suppliers of luxury items in the name of procurement of medical supplies.

Next, the volunteers cross checked the rates at which the medicines had been supplied only to find that the retail outlets sold the same items a lot cheaper. Given below is a comparative table of the retail rates and the rate at which the medicines were supplied to SECL:-

Item Size Retail rate in Rupees SECL Supply Rate in Rupees
Amrutanjan balm 10gm 15/- 20/-
Kayam churna 100gm 33/- 46/-
Paurush Jeevan capsule Strip of 10 20/- 28/-
Sesha hair oil 100ml 88/- 185/-
Sona chandi chyawanprash 1kg 185/- 280/-
-do- 1/2kg 105/- 155/-
Rose water 30ml 10/- 15/-
Banphool oil 200ml 68/- 96/-
Noorani oil 100ml 30/- 44/-
Jaitul oil 50ml 30/- 35/-
Rajwadi chyawanprash 1kg 340/- 440/-
-do- 1/2kg 187/- 250/-
Aglari 100ml 33/- 47/-

Savlon 100ml 23/- 25/-

Dettol 100ml 17/- 21/-

Phenyle 500ml 33/- 56/-

Only one item, namely, Trishul tablets were supplied at a price lower slightly lower than the retail price (Rs. 8/- and Rs. 10/- respectively). During 2005-06, SECL had allocated Rs. 99,78,690/- for its medical budget. The total value of the four purchase orders released under the RTI Act was Rs. 6.67 lakhs. The extent of money lost due to corruption remains to be calculated.

Sunil published the details of these findings in the Koylanchal Times a current affairs magazine popular in the coal mining belt of MP and Chhattisgarh that he published every month. In August, officials of the Vigilance unit of SECL contacted him to hear learn first hand, the story of the findings of the RTI team. Nothing much was heard for a few months afterwards. Upon making informal enquiries with SECL about the progress of the case Sunil found out that the Vigilance unit had instituted a formal investigation. The Chief Finance Manager and the Materials Manager seem to have been chargesheeted in the case and inquiry proceedings are said to be going on.

Sunil, Narendra, Satish and their team of volunteers are elated at these developments. Their painstaking efforts have awakened potential whistleblowers within SECL. An employee of the company in the Hasdev mines area, who spoke with the activists on condition of anonymity, told them that they had merely succeeded in scratching the surface. Corruption in the procurement of medical supplies is deeper and murkier than what has been unearthed. It has been alleged that several batches of medicines supplied to the OPDs and PHCs are well past the expiry date or will become useless in less than six months. The activists are now planning to request spot inspection of the stock of medicines to verify the facts themselves. They are also planning to apply to the Vigilance unit of SECL under the RTI Act seeking a progress report of action taken on the basis of their findings.

Narrative:- Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Convenor, MPSAA and Venkatesh Nayak, CHRI

{Sunil, Narendra, Satish and their team of volunteers are all active members of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan (MPSAA). CHRI works with the Abhiyan to spread awareness about RTI in Madhya Pradesh.}

2006-11-16T22:29:00.000+05:30

Sandhan Association for Advocacy and Development is an independent, non-partial and non-profitable voluntary organisation working in the field of Right to Information and Electoral Reform.