“ONE DECADE OF RTI AS A TOOL FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE”

http://www.amu.ac.in/

“ONE DECADE OF R.T.I. AS A TOOL

 FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE”

We are blessed of getting world's biggest democracy but has we got a good working governance apart from this? I would say, „NO‟. But, by the passage of time, new acts have been emerging to tackle the problems of the society. We know “Law is the Change of Nature”. For this purpose “Right to Information Act” was passed by the U.P.A.  government in 2005. Until 2005, an ordinary person had no right to information of a public officer. The constitution itself guaranteed U/A 19, the freedom of speech and expression even then a citizen had no legal right to know about the details of public policies and expenditures. 

However, it was not possible for a person to scrutinize the public policies with a view to provide their feedback in policy making process. The whole development system was the culture of secrecy beginning from colonial rule till next six decades of independence. In order to ratify the deficiencies in the mechanism, the citizens in general and NGOs demanded for access to the information held by the public bodies. In this drop back, Parliament enacted the Right to Information Act 2005 to sweep the culture of secrecy and to ensure good governance. The main concern of the act is to allow for greater smoothness in the functioning of the government as to promote more transparency and accountability. It is also called as “freedom of Information” throughout the world. 

R.T.I.-Brief History 

The idea of RTI as a fundamental right was started with the interpretation of right to freedom of speech and expression by judiciary. In Bennett Coleman & Co. V. The Union of India 1973, the majority of opinions declared that “freedom of speech & expression” includes the right to read and be informed to the citizens. Again in Manubhai D. Shah V. Life Insurance Corporation, it was further reaffirmed the point of including right to know as the fundamental right of the citizens. There have been numerous of cases regarding disclosure of government information and transparency. The lack of any such legislation resulted in formation of Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan, an organisation for the empowerment of farmers, peasants etc. 

This led to the nation wide demand for making such law in support of lawyers, social activists, professionals etc. “Freedom of Information Bill” was made into law in January 2003 but it was not notified by any government. Hence, several state governments had already passed their own RTI acts for their respective states. By 2005, nine states had passed RTI but with the passing of a Unicode RTI act by union legislature, other state level RTI‟s became redundant. Soon it became a national law in the name of right to information act, 2005 except J&K.

RTI- It’s Implementations 

It's almost one decade is over now. It‟s time to research on its implementations and impacts. One year after when it came tin enforce, it was found that only 12 states and union territories educational departments released 35% of information. Madhya Pradesh with 87%, Uttaranchal and Chandigarh with 70% and 64% respectively, Delhi with 54% were the top 4 to provide information sought on education. This was not really a good start. States with big failures were West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu putting up only 5% of information required. But, apart from its failures, some developments must be saluted also. After the half decade of its implementation Bihar has started a unique process of filing RTI through telephones. This process of filing RTI is working in Bihar since 2007. 

Moreover the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has come up with setting an RTI call centres as it is an easy process for filing RTI applications for citizens. Recently, an online portal has been started for filing application with minimum fee of Rs.10 for the citizens with exemption to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders. 

RTI- It’s Impacts

RTI has made both tangible and intangible impacts. Citizens have used it as a tool not only for good governance but, also for getting their ration cards, passports, pension funds and numerous refunds from government easily. There are cases for both old age and youngsters who have taken the help of RTI to resolve their grievances. Big scams have been averted by RTI e.g. information revealed that 87% of wheat and 94% of rice meant for poor were siphoned by shopkeepers and officers in charged. In 2007, data obtained under RTI stopped a big scam of hefty amount of Rs. 6000 Cr. in Crawford market in Mumbai. Many applicants for scholarships were awarded their left amounts through RTI only. This act created a manifold advantage for citizens and fear for an authority which ensures really good governance. Moreover RTI has been used to expedite NREGA. Villagers of Bandhugaon gram panchayat of Koraput district filed an RTI to know the job cards in the village that” why all the households, who by this time should have got the job cards? who were the officers guilty of violating the provisions of RTI” etc. RTI worked as a miracle for villagers. Within seven days of filing applications under RTI, the authorities issued 40 job cards and promise to deliver the rest within some days.

RTI-Recent Developments

 As we know India is going through a drastic change with the promotion of digital 20-20. It‟s a scheme under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology by the Government if India. Through this scheme government aims to make India digitally for the better benefits of its citizens. RTI is used as a tool for many problems faced by people. In keeping view of increasing number in the applications, the government started online process by a web portal i.e. www.rtionline.gov.in Now the applicants without any fuss, move to the aforesaid site either by mobile or through computer and easily file the application directly to the government. A small amount of Rs.10 is to be paid online.

Conclusion 

The whole country has welcomed this act as magical stick for them. This act has a bright future if it is developed at every stage. Since a decade has been passed, it has proved itself as a good tool not only for governance but also an enlightened stick to the whole citizens including youngsters, peasants, old aged, employees etc. as an fundamental right to know the secrecy of authorities and their policy making process. Since our country is fighting for corruption-free for a long time I can undoubtedly say that RTI has reduced corruptions by the authorities throughout the whole country. Hence RTI has played in greater transparency and accountability in governance at all levels of governments- central, states and local bodies including village panchayats in public domain.

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