Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

‘Utilise RTI Act to ensure transparency’

Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

MAKING A POINT: Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan speaking on Right to Information Act at the installation of the office-bearers of the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Midtown on Wednesday. —

Coimbatore: Every citizen should make full use of the Right to Information Act and ensure transparency in administration, said Ramon Magasaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal.

An IRS officer who resigned from the Income Tax Department and joined Parivartan, Mr. Kejriwal was speaking at the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Midtown installation of the office-bearers for the ensuing year.

He exhorted the literate citizens to stop criticising and start participating in democracy. “We decide our bosses through our votes and we never fix accountability. Every citizen in some form or the other pay tax. We never ask our bosses for the accounts and in the last 60 years, nobody had asked the government for accounts. Politicians are servants and the electorate are the boss. The Right to Information Act of 2005 was passed by Parliament based on a Supreme Court ruling in 1976. Right to Information Act is an extension of the fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution under Article 19 (1) (a). The Freedom of Expression could be utilised only if there was information for a citizen to express,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

“India is one of the 70 countries that had this progressive Right to Information Act. It ensures five rights for a citizen: right to seek information, right to inspect files, right to seek photostat copies of government documents, files, bills and receipts, right to inspect government works and ask for taking samples of the materials used in construction works by the government.

The last two rights are unique to India. In Switzerland, if 50,000 citizens sign on a paper it had to be passed as a legislation and if one lakh people signed the paper, then it had to be a constitutional amendment. But in India even if 10 lakh people sign a letter, we don’t even get an acknowledgement,” he said.

He said that in the RTI Act there was a penalty clause that enables deduction of salary of the government servant in the event of failure to provide information within the stipulated period. This was the first law that had a direct effect on the salary of the government servant.

Narrating examples of RTI applications that made the bureaucracy work, Mr. Kejriwal was sore that if any information was obtained there was no scope for punishing the “corrupt” or “errant” official based on the information. Since, the citizen always had to go back to the same bureaucracy for initiating action.

In India what is practised is an apology for democracy. Democratic right was exercised only once in five years. There was a lack of democracy and it was not a modern concept. Even during the rule of the kings, the people’s assembly took policy decisions. There was a pertinent need to restore democracy and power back to the people. There had to be an evolution of powers to the people directly.

In rural areas, there were gram sabhas but in urban areas, there was only representative democracy. The solution to this was the proposed bill on Nagar Raj mooted by the Centre. This enables constitution of ward committees wherein the People’s Assemblies could take decisions on municipal administration related issues. The Bill had to be passed by the States and Tamil Nadu was yet to act on the same, he said.

He exhorted the Rotary Clubs and similar organisations to conduct a campaign, workshop and seminar to create awareness on the need to have a Nagar Raj Bill passed in the Assembly and forwarded it to the Union Government. The Bill will bring in the concept of decision by the people and its implementation by politicians and bureaucrats.

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