RTI is the beginning of Participatory Government, but impropvements needed in implementation: Vice President

14 Oct 2009

The two day Annual Convention on RTI concluded today. The Vice-President of India Sh.M.Hamid Ansari presided over the valedictory function. In his remarks Sh. Ansari said that the basic tenets of RTI have been implemented and the institutional structure is being utilized by citizens. The Right to Information has become an important instrumentality to our media and civil society. What we see is the beginning of decentralization and participatory governance and a citizen-friendly orientation to government, he said. Sh. Ansari said, the Right to Information Act when passed in 2005, was hailed as a revolutionary step aimed at fundamentally altering the balance of power between the government and citizens. Four years hence, dissatisfaction is evident and pertains to five major themes.

These are: First, a vast number of organizations that should have been covered under the definition of “public authority” have not come forward pro-actively to be covered by the Act. Currently, neither the Information Commissions nor the governments have ensured that all bodies that are covered by the definition of ‘public authority’ undertake action as listed in Chapter II of the Act. Second, very few public authorities of the Central and State governments have followed the provisions of Section 4 of the Act in letter and spirit. The actual disclosure of information by the public authorities is marked by inconsistency and unevenness. There has been little innovation and adaptation to capture information in government agencies and thereafter bring about suo moto disclosure. There is clearly a case for putting in place detailed ‘RTI Act friendly’ record management practices.

Third, it is important to note that Section 4 of the Act mandates every public authority to publish the manner of execution of subsidy programmes. While such a process has been initiated with respect to NREGA, significant work remains to be done on this issue. Fourth, currently the Central and State Information Commissioners work in relative isolation. Fifth, an important lacuna has been the lack of a mandatory monitoring mechanism to look at the implementation of the RTI Act and to ensure that the Act is implemented in letter and spirit. Sh. Ansari felt that there is need for information on the RTI Act being available in all the 22 languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of our Constitution. The Chief Information Commissioner Sh. Wajahat Habibullah summed up the proceedings which were held in different sessions.

Lord Meghnad Desai in his keynote address stated that the right to information strengthens the roots of democracy in India. The first technical session of the first day focused on the outcomes of the study reports conducted by three different groups. The session on ‘Proactive Disclosures’ was chaired by Ms Medha Patkar. In her opening remarks, she stated that proactive disclosures by the Public Authorities are the pre cursor to good governance. It is indeed a matter of great concern that the important and meaningful information be placed in public domain making use of all the mediums and merely through the website. A study on the transparency, accountability and least corruption index of the central Public Authorities was also presented.

The first technical Session of the Second day focused on the theme “RTI in Developing World”. It was chaired by Shri A. N. Tiwari, Central Information Commissioner along with three speakers- Sh. Mohamed Latheef, Male, Maldives, Sh.. Rukshana Nanayakkara, Colombo, SriLanka, and Shri Venkatesh Nayak, CHRI. Shri Tiwari while making opening remarks concentrated on the issues how RTI shapes up in other countries. He presented data that in 1990 there were 12 developing countries whereas 80 countries have enacted RTI Laws so far. Throwing light on slow adaptation of RTI Laws in developing countries he investigated the reasons those are; slow democratization, low literacy rate, absence of civil society & civil society movements in these countries. Another reason is that the poor countries consider RTI expensive. The developing countries are frequently fearful of free information. Sh. Md. Latheef, Maldives, expressing his views on RTI in his country said that Maldives would like to learn from India. Likewise, Shri Rukshana Nanayakkara of Sri Lanka expressed his views that no Law like RTI is in Sri Lanka so far. However, he stated, that Article 10 & 14(1)(a) of Sri Lankan constitution which deals with freedom of thought includes the Right to Information. The technical session on “Propagation of RTI Culture- Role of Media and other Traditional Means” was chaired by Shri Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to the Prime Minister of India. He observed that the media had always the Right to be informed independent of the RTI Act. Therefore it has an obligation to remind the government that they have a duty to inform the citizens irrespective of any Law. He said that the media a supportive of RTI and would remain so. Sh. Badarinath Sr. Editor, Financial Chronical, listed out the plausible role of the media including the monitoring the implementation of RTI and generating a report on ineffectiveness and inefficiency in public services. He was also of the opinion that the media can bring in the public domain the success stories of the RTI Act. He further indicated that reporting of the social audit is also an important facet of the responsibility of the media. Sh. Sanjay Gupta, Editor & the CEO of Dainik Jagaran, reiterated that the RTI is a great tool in the hands of the citizen which may help participate them the decision making process. Sh. R. Dilip Reddy, State Information Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh, urged the media to investigating journalism so that they come out with the substantial evidence of their claims. Sh. Vinay Tiwari, Managing Editor, CNN-IBN the things that need to be changed in the TV Journalism viz. Strange cycle of laziness over laziness resulting into generating report of having lack of quantifiable impact; assumptions that the reporters knows everything about RTI which may not be true and mastering the skills of selective dissemination. The President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil had inaugurated the Convention yesterday. *****