NGO regrets slow implementation of RTI norms, recommends proactive disclosures

RTI On Wheels, run by MAGP

By A Representative
The Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP), Gujarat’s foremost Right to Information (RTI) NGO, has revealed that there is a whopping 41.2 per cent violation of RTI norms by the first appellate authorities (FAAs), who happen to be Gujarat government officials, which leads to a large number of cases piling up with the Gujarat Information Commission. Last year, it has said in a statement, there were in all 30,491 RTI appeals or complaints, out of which 19,130 could be disposed of.
The MAGP -- which has been running India’s first RTI hotline (09924085000), completing seven years, receiving a total of 1.74 lakh calls from 23 states at the rate of 67 calls per day -- said in its statement, there were 28 per cent of cases where the public information officer (PIO) did not comply with the order from the FAAs, in 25.6 per cent of cases, the PIO did not comply by the order from the information commission, in 28.2 per cent of cases, only partial information was provided after the second appeal, and only in 17.4 per cent of cases full information is received after the second appeal.
Issued in the wake of the eighth anniversary of the RTI, the statement regrets, a major reason why so many cases remain pending is refusal to comply by Section 4(1)b of the RTI Act, information that needs to be pro-actively disclosed. It says, “proactive disclosure is precondition for good governance”, adding, it is particularly required to given for the budget for particular programmes, expenses incurred for those programmes, the schemes implemented by public authorities (housing schemes, pension schemes, employment guarantee scheme, etc,), beneficiaries of these schemes, and norms and criteria by which beneficiaries are selected, decisions taken.
The proactive disclosure is also needed to be given, it says, those who get “leases for mining of sand, limestone, lignite and other minerals, under which condition, what is the time period, and what is amount of royalty to be paid to the government; who gets licenses, authorizations (gun, ration shop, kerosene dealership, notary-ship etc), and subsidies (subsidy in tax, allotment of land, supply of water at subsidized rate, loans at subsidized rate of interest, tax holiday packages etc).
The statement underlines, “About 82 per cent of the information asked in Gujarat is about these issues.” Yet, “about 90 per cent of the panchyats in Gujarat did not disclose information about their functioning, budgets, schemes, norms, beneficiaries etc. Above 95 per cent of the ration shop are still to disclose the basic info of how much ration per month, at what rate, and who gets what.” It underlines, “If the government would have ensured disclosures of above mentioned information on the notice boards, walls, through website then RTI activist Amit Jethva would not have been killed or Jabardann Gadhvi would not have committed suicide, and people would not have been harassed.”
The statement further says, “Public authorities did not want to disclose info pro-actively because that will disclose the misappropriations, violations of norms, and corruption in the system.” It laments, there has still not been any audit for 4(1) b of the Act”, demanding, “The State Information Commission should held government responsible for non-implementation of section 4(1) b.”
Based on all this, the MAGP has demanded that:
* All the panchayat should disclose information about budget received, spent, list of benificiaries of welfare schemes, norms, and rules followed by Panchayat in decision making, job card list under MGNREGA, payment details, details of works done, names, and functions of various village level committees like Gram Sanjivani Samiti Pani Samiti, school management committees, PDS monitoring commission, social justice committee etc. Every village should have BPL list painted on the walls.
* All the private and public land records should be disclosed in the village. Viz – survey no, ownership, possession, encroachment, change in usage, details of sale of land, total grazing land, shortfall, etc., on line with what the Andhra Pradesh government has done
* All the PDS shops should have information on how much ration, at which rate for whom.
* All industries receiving subsidy in tax, land, water usage, electricity or any other subsidy should be disclosed on the website. Also details of monitoring mechanism and reports of monitoring visits or compliance reports field by industries should be made public.
* Details like time period, royalty and conditions of all the leases (sand, lignite, limestone, sandstone and other minerals) should be proactively disclose on the website. Also details of violations of lease conditions and actions taken by the government
* All the district collector, District Development officer, District Supply officer, District Health Officer, and director DRDA should ensure that information is painted on the walls of PA’s under their jurisdiction at block and village level. RTI should be one of the Agenda for monthly reporting or review meetings held at district level.
* Government should conduct audit of section 4(1) b and should publish the same.
* Government should take action as per service rules against the PIO and AA who has not implemented RTI act. The same should be recorded in the service book of the official, employee.
The MAGP statement expresses disappointment that the High Court rules for RTI are ultra-virus to the Act. It says, “As per section 6(3) of the RTI Act, PIO can transfer RTI application to other public authorities if information sought belongs to that particular authority. However Gujarat HC RTI rules have banned such transfer and PIO do neither transfers such application nor did citizens gets his RTI application or fee back. The RTI Act has provision of providing information free of any cost to person below poverty line. This provision is not made in Gujarat HC RTI rules. As per section 20(1), PIO can be penalized upto 25,000 for violation of RTI. The Gujarat HC rules states a penalty of Rs.500 for violation.” It adds, “MAGP has made repeated representation to Chief Justice of HC to review its rules and remove these anomalies. We are still waiting for the reply and action on our representation.”
It also regrets, “RTI rules by the Gujarat State Assembly can frame its own RTI rules. The Gujarat government has framed new rules in March 2010. However, the State assembly is still working with old rules of 2005. We have requested Gujarat State Assembly to review their rules and either adopt Gujarat Government RTI rules or frame new one.”

Comments

India's chemical industry: The missing piece of Atmanirbhar Bharat

By N.S. Venkataraman* Rarely a day passes without the Prime Minister or a cabinet minister speaking about the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat . The Start-up India scheme is a pillar in promoting this vision, and considerable enthusiasm has been reported in promoting start-up projects across the country. While these developments are positive, Atmanirbhar Bharat does not seem to have made significant progress within the Indian chemical industry . This is a matter of high concern that needs urgent and dispassionate analysis.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Remembering a remarkable rebel: Personal recollections of Comrade Himmat Shah

By Rajiv Shah I first came in contact with Himmat Shah in the second half of the 1970s during one of my routine visits to Ahmedabad , my maternal hometown. I do not recall the exact year, but at that time I was working in Delhi with the CPI -owned People’s Publishing House (PPH) as its assistant editor, editing books and writing occasional articles for small periodicals. Himmatbhai — as I would call him — worked at the People’s Book House (PBH), the CPI’s bookshop on Relief Road in Ahmedabad.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Muslim women’s rights advocates demand criminalisation of polygamy: Petition launched

By A Representative An online petition seeking a legal ban on polygamy has been floated by Javed Anand, co-editor of Sabrang and National Convener of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), inviting endorsements from citizens, organisations and activists. The petition, titled “Indian Muslims & Secular Progressive Citizens Demand a Legal Ban on Polygamy,” urges the Central and State governments, Parliament and political parties to abolish polygamy through statutory reform, backed by extensive data from the 2025 national study conducted by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA).

Farewell to Robin Smith, England’s Lionhearted Warrior Against Pace

By Harsh Thakor* Robin Smith, who has died at the age of 62, was among the most adept and convincing players of fast bowling during an era when English cricket was in decline and pace bowling was at its most lethal. Unwavering against the tormenting West Indies pace attack or the relentless Australians, Smith epitomised courage and stroke-making prowess. His trademark shot, an immensely powerful square cut, made him a scourge of opponents. Wearing a blue England helmet without a visor or grille, he relished pulling, hooking and cutting the quicks.

Search This Blog