Right to Information Act
Circular to the Right to Information Act
Democracy
requires a knowledgeable electorate and intelligibility of
information
which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold
Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. India is a
mature vibrant democracy and a robust pillar of the world economy. There has
been significant development of the socio-economic sectors of India since the
planned economic development initiated from the early fifties. In India about
72.22 percent of population live in rural villages. Even though the literacy
rate of the Indian population increases with the passing of time but the
literacy rate of rural areas of India is only 59.21 percent which is lower than
overall literacy of 65.38 percent. Subsequently in rural areas of India the
awareness and
information
in the hands of the rural population is also very low which makes them a victim
of corruption of educated rural development authorities.
Another problem faced by rural India is poverty. According to NSSO’s 61st round
survey about 27.5 percent population in India is living bellow the poverty line
in 2004-2005. Since the first light of freedom, intensive efforts have been made
to restructure the living standard of rural masses. The passage of the
Constitution Act, 1992 also marks a new era in the democratic set up of the
country and provides Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Recently a new act specifically National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)
has been enacted from 2005 which provided a legal guarantee for one hundred days
of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household.
But it is the corruption that is keeping India everlastingly poor and makes life
miserable for the common poor citizen. Even among the people considered as below
poverty line, there are a lot of people who are actually above the poverty line
and are getting the benefit of rural development programmes implemented for
rural people.
But now the Right to
Information
Act and rural development programmes can be synchronised for reduction of
poverty and corruption. The Right to
Information
(RTI) Act, 2005 is the practical
regime of right to
information
for citizens to secure access to
information
under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and
accountability in their working. The Act applies to all States and union
Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir - which is covered
under a State-level law. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may
request
information
from a
public authority
which is required to be replied within thirty days. The Act also requires every
public authority
to computerise their records for wide broadcasting and to proactively publish
certain categories of
information
so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for
information
formally.
The
RTI
Act, directs the central and the state governments of India to initiate
necessary steps to develop educational programmes for the public especially
disadvantaged communities, encourage public authorities to participate in the
development and organisation of such programmes, promote timely dissemination of
accurate
information
to the public, compile and disseminate a user guide for the public in the
respective official language. Now a days the field of education sector has
enlarged considerably. From the primary level to the higher education level the
number of educational institutions have been expanding with the growing demand
of the students. But some of educational institutions have no government license
to provide education. Even UGC has recognised 22 universities as fake
universities which were providing education to the students without UGC
recommendation. It leads the students to a helpless situation if they get
admitted in these institutions. But
RTI
can help students to get
information
regarding the reorganisation of degrees, fees paid, number of students etc. So
the students should have the full knowledge regarding the degree awarded to them
and their reorganisation. Now a student can get the full
information
regarding the examination system and the evaluation of the answer script of the
question paper. They can get the xerox copy of the answer script and get the
full
information
of the examination.
Freedom of
information
for the poor becomes crucial. The right to
information
can allow communities to take charge of their lives by participating in
decision-making and by challenging corrupt and arbitrary actions at all levels.
This empowerment is particularly significant in states, such as Assam, which
suffers from low literacy rates, corrupt officials, high birth and infant
mortality rates, social and economic tensions, class, caste and communal
conflicts, and a relatively poor
record
of civil rights. The
RTI
Act can ensure the availability of the
information
on the rural development programmes and agencies, grant availability and
utilization. Most of the rural development programmes are implemented through
district planning committee, village panchayat etc. But most of the rural people
have not known the programmes implemented by it. The village Panchayat can make
provision for providing the
information
to the public on a notice board writing the utilization of grant and grant
available in different heads and the people accountable to attain such
programmes. This will help common people to know the
information
on rural development and the corruption taking place in implementing them and
they can question the head of the respective department regarding the non
utilisation of such grants. In recent times, to remove the corruption of the
NREGA Act in distributing job cards one can take help of
RTI
for proper implementation of the act. The
RTI
can help its proper implementation of NREGA and for other rural development
programmes.
Source:
The Assam Tribune Online
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