In
June 2005, the Government of India enacted the National Right
to Information Act 2005 (RTI Act), marking a watershed in this
nation’s democratic development. The Right to Information
is a comprehensive legislation that would confer statutory rights
on citizens for seeking information from public authorities. The
Act came into full fledged operation from 12th October ready for
implementation.
The Act is expected to usher in a new era of governance and promote
more transparency and accountability.
‘How could women across class whose access to the
public is severely curtailed by practices of violence
and dual exclusion, even begin to access the Right to
Information? In a situation, where even women of privileged
classes across caste and community are excluded from governance
matters, through brazen practices of widespread misogyny.
The delivery of justice for women has been virtually absent.’
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Excerpt from Yojna Magazine
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Time
and again incessant concerns have been voiced by the Women Elected
Representatives at several gatherings about the host of denials
they counter at the Block Offices while seeking factual informations
about their Blocks and Villages. Customary denials in official
dealings have reduced the efficacy of these Elected Women Representatives
in executing their implementation responsibilities. Insufficient
dissemination of information from Block Offices about the resource
allocations for respective villages, affects the real percolation
of benefits to the rural masses leading to frequent fall-outs
of the Government Schemes which are initiated with perceived goals
and objectives.
•
Awareness building and Sensitization of the PRI’s
on Right to Information Act.
• Enhancing knowledge based functional capacities
of Elected Women Representatives on exercising the Right
to Seek Information.
• Experience Sharing of the Elected Women Representatives
from 4 Districts on the concerted Forum efforts being
undertaken in respective Districts.
• Expansion of the functional knowledge about RTI
to the lowest tier of PRI structure through the women
Representatives participating in the Workshop.
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Workshop
Venue: PRC-Panchayat Raj Resource Centre of SBMA in Anjanisain
Tehri Garhwal.
Workshop
Participation: An overwhelming participation of 244 Panchayat
Representatives and community people from Tehri, Uttarkashi, Ghat
and Gairsain (Chamoli) and SBMA Panchayat Raj Programme Units
(Plan and UNDP) was visible.
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Inaugural
Ceremony:
The inauguration of the Workshop began by 10:30 am. All
the participants including the chief guest were ushered
in with a warm welcome note by Mr. Rakesh Bisht the convener
of the Workshop. Before starting the ceremony Swami Manmathan
was paid tribute followed by the lamp lighting ritual.
Henceforth the Convener Mr. Rakesh Bisht briefed the participants
about the objective of the workshop. A welcome song was
presented by the students of Environmental School of Anjanisain
enamoring the participants by their performance.
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| Performance
by the Ashram Paryavaran School Children |
Deliberations
•
Introductory Note by Mr. Rakesh Bisht (Workshop Convener).
•
Briefing on SBMA’s prolonged community development programmes
and relevance of Right to Information Act in the context of PRI
bringing Good Governance.
Speaker: Mr. C S Sood (Professor of Pol. Sc.Dept.,
Garhwal University)
•
Speech by Dharmanand Uniyalji (Supporter of SBMA)
•
Speech by Krishnanand Maithani (Nagar Pallika
Chairman, Srinagar)
•
Introduction to Right to Information Act, Need for the Act, Constitutional
Implementation Provisions under the Act, the role of PRI members
in exercising right to information, Benefits to be accrued through
widespread access of this Act.
Chief Guest: Dr. Maithani Shah (Additional Commissioner
of RTI commission)
•
Open Discussion regarding Right to Information Act.
•
Presentations by Women Forums of 3 Districts.
Speakers: Women Forum Representatives
•
Summarization of the Workshop with Closing Speech
Speaker: Mr. Rakesh Bisht
Introductory
Note
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Speaker:
Mr. Rakesh Bisht
Governance Program Personnel
Briefing the workshop participants about SBMA’s prolonged
efforts in the Governance Issue he proceeded on to uphold
SBMA’s experiences in the area of Panchayat Raj. SBMA
started its work on the issue of Governance from the year
1996 with Panchayat Raj Quality Augmentation Programme.
Several community meetings, exploratory and evaluative studies,
conducting micro-planning exercises, networking for backward
and forward linkages have been carried out during the Programme.
SBMA’s ardent efforts have been driven
with the goal
of influencing the policy matters leading to legislative
initiatives for bringing them in line with popular desire..
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Now
the Right to Information Act has planted a seed of hope in the
minds of people to generate institutions and principles necessary
for participatory democracy. It has dawned for increased participation
of people in the functioning of government making them more informed
and concerned about the activities of the Government. The Right
to Information Workshop seeks to meet its purpose of generating
an awakening concern among the Elected Women Representatives about
exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right of seeking information
and overcoming the bottlenecks in grass root Implementation through
PRI’s.
Stressing
on the need of the Workshop Mr. Rakesh Bisht summarized his views
and invited the Mr. Sood for the next session of dialogue.
Views
expressed by eminent Speakers:
Speaker:
Prof. C.S Sood
Prof. Pol. Science Deptt., Garhwal University
• SBMA’s long driven efforts towards active
involvement with Panchayats.
• Constitutional relevance of Panchayats in terms
of Community Development
• Democratic leadership needs to be built for raising
community ideas and perceptions
• The inability of Panchayats to address people’s
need due to corrupt administration practices existing at
the official levels.
• The role of Civil society organizations in stirring
people to be more responsive towards their democratic rights
and make acute demands for maintaining transparency and
accountability with Governing systems.
• RTI and the role of the community in utilizing it
as a tool for fostering good governance.
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Speaker:
Mr. Cyril R. Raphael
Secretary & Chief Functionary, SBMA
•
The vision of the ‘Women in Governance’ Program
is to expand its effort in all the districts of Uttaranchal,
generating a positive environment for the contemporary and
forthcoming Women leaders.
• Bring a cadre of women trainers through our intensive
training process to carry forward the spirit of leadership
leading to the sustenance of the Program objectives.
• The RTI Act is a gateway to exercise our democratic
right and authority of questioning, demanding for justice
and shunning all existing malpractices in the administration
system which are creating hurdles for our
capable women leaders from catering to community
needs.
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Speaker:
Sundari Devi
Zila Panchayat Representative
•
The concerted force of all Women Panchayat leaders at all 3-tiers
of the system with the additional force of women CBO leaders should
pioneer the initiative of the programme in all the Districts of
Uttaranchal.
• Education should be used as a powerful tool to raise concerns
about women rights.
• Women are the potential catalyzing force in spreading
the message of RTI generating accountability and transparency
concerns within the community.
Speaker:
Mr. Maithani
Additional Commissioner
State RTI Commission
The
session’s Chief Guest Mr. Maithani presided the last
session of the day. His opening remarks “I hope the
discussion
on RTI in today’s workshop would be beneficial to
the elected women representatives”. The workshop initiative
should not decline after this. It should be percolated to
the community to spread the information, hence mobilize
the community people and educate them about exercising this
right.
Mr.
Maithani gradually proceeded to delve in deeply with the
essential elements of the RTI Act unraveling the
people driven provisions of the Act.
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What makes the Act unique?
The
uniqueness of the Act lies in its approach of making the Act for
the people of India, a country which has been recognized as world’s
largest Democracy.
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Need
for the Act:
•
Awareness, Information
and knowledge are the fundamental weapons of Democracy.
In contradiction to this Democratic principle, power is
often concentrated in the hands of few curbing the access
of these fundamental weapons for common masses.
•
A people driven democratic country like India needs to maintain
accountability and transparency in its Government operations.
In variance to this what proceeded in the Democratic State
of India was sheer negligence in maintaining this transparency
by concealing of information in actual practice
•
The Right to Information Act has now brought in a regime
demanding for harmonizing these variances to preserve the
country’s Democratic ideals.
•
The Act makes it expedient for Government officials to provide
for furnishing certain information to citizens who desire
to have.
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Main
Provisions of the Act were discussed at length
•
When did the Act come into Force?
• Who is covered?
• What does Information mean?
• What does Right to Information mean?
• What are the obligations of Public Authority?
• What is not open to disclosure?
• Who are Public Information Officers (PIO’s)?
• What are the duties of a PIO?
• What is the Application Procedure for requesting information?
• What is the tile limit to get the information?
• What is the fee?
• What could be the ground for rejection?
• How is the Central Information Commission constituted?
• What are the powers and functions of Information Commissions?
• Role of the Central/ State Governments?
Briefing about the RTI handbook (Lok Soochna Handbook) devised
by the State given in detail.
•
How to access the handbook?
• From where to access?
• Price of the handbook.
• Requirement of Information support inputs on Lok Soochna
Handbook.
• Utility of the Lok Soochna Handbook.
Open Discussion on Right to Information
Act
Presentations
by Women Block Forums
•
Elected Women Representatives from 8 different blocks spoke about
their forums success outcomes and future strategies
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Block Forum Representatives
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| Blocks |
Thauldar |
Narendranagar |
Kirtinagar |
Chamba |
Narendranagar |
Gairsain |
Uttarkashi |
Ghat |
Workshop
Conclusion
The
Workshop after this was concluded with the closing remarks of
the gathered participants and with a vote of thanks to the Chief
Guest for extending vital information’s on RTI Act till
the Panchayat levels.
