Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

NREGS, RTI Act outcome of social battles: Aruna Roy

Staff Reporter

`It is the responsibility of one and all to preserve them' Even the US Congress is interested in RTI Act as it envisages making the State responsible, says Ramon Magsaysay awardee

ANANTAPUR: Noted social activist and Ramon Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy has said that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Right to Information Act were the outcome of hard fought social and political battles.

It is the responsibility of one and all to preserve them, she said.

Novel scheme

In an interaction with media persons here on Saturday before the commencement of plenary session on social audit of NREGS, she said no country in the world had dared to make the scheme, guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment to every household in need of work, irrespective of caste and creed.

However, the delivery mechanism in the country was very difficult making it tough to implement the two acts, she felt.

Talking about the RTI Act, she said that even the US Congress was interested in learning about the Act, as it was envisaged to make the Government machinery responsible.

NREGS had been vitally important for removal of corruption in the society, she added.

She complimented the State Government for coming forward with social audit of the NREGS and also playing a proactive role unlike in Rajasathan where the Government had only a passive role.

She urged the citizens to learn to access their democratic rights and added that the mindset of the people would also need a change.

Progressive change

The fact that a number of people had been demanding work in Anantapur district indicated that there had been a progressive change among the people.

She also stressed the need for maintenance of documents at grassroots level and creation of durable assets to disprove the skeptics of the Act wrong.

Terming the social audit as a forum to intervene with the governance, the former bureaucrat said it had also been an excellent platform for dialogue about common concerns.

Real change

Problems would be there everywhere, but the will to rectify them would bring the real change, she opined.

Audit

Joint Secretary of Parliamentary Committee on Finance Amitabh Mukhopadhyay said information would always be contaminated by power and the systems like RTI Act and social audit would cleanse it.

More information in the public domain would minimise the systematic distortion of facts. Additional CEO of IKP and Director of EGS Santha Kumari said a monitoring system would be evolved in districts to follow up issues found in social audit on NREGS.

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