Ghosts in their cupboards

The right to information campaign has unnerved the local bureaucracy in India. No wonder, they are hatching dubious conspiracies to block the dogged ghostbusters
Sadiq Naqvi Delhi

The worst of fears on the right to information (RTI) campaign have come true. The rules of the RTI Act stands amended in Bihar. Now, public information officers (PIO) have the power to split the information sought by people so that the financial burden on the applicant can increase. For instance, a question can be broken into different parts. The applicants will thus have to shell out an extra Rs 10 for each question asked. That is, the local bureaucracy has found a way to nip the RTI bud at the first point of entry itself.

The worries don't end here. The information seekers who belong to the economically weaker sections - a sizeable number - will not be able to avail of more than 10 pages of information free of cost. It is this section, despite scores of welfare schemes over several decades, which is still reeling under acute poverty. "The RTI is a weapon for the oppressed sections of the Indian society," says Information Commissioner ML Sharma.  Hence, it is this section which should be empowered through this Act, so that they can check how the funds marked for them are being siphoned off by an organised nexus of officials and local mafia for years.

Multiple problems continue to hamper the speedy implementation of the law. Most governments seem disinterested. The fiasco in Bihar happened because the central government has not been able to frame basic rules that would govern the RTI all across the country. "We have time and again drafted and submitted rules to the concerned authorities," says Aruna Roy, noted RTI activist.

Hardnews was informed by a senior official in the Central Information Commission that the government does not want to tamper with the federal character of the law where state governments and other institutions have the power to frame their own rules.

A government-sponsored study, recently done by Price WaterhouseCoopers, found that only 25 per cent of the people were satisfied with the information provided to them under the RTI. When one such petitioner approached the Supreme Court for information of all cases related to terrorism and fundamentalism, he was told that the information is there on the internet. "So how many in this country have access to the internet," asked an activist. It is a fact that the majority of people in India are neither computer literate, nor do they have access to computer networks.

When the petitioner filed the first appeal, he alleged that the first appellate authority of the Supreme Court asked him to explain in English which he apparently had to do through a friend. The petitioner than lodged a complaint with the law minister, the chief justice of India and the Central Information Commissioner. The law ministry reportedly did not act. Later,  again, a RTI petition was filed to know the status of the complaint; but no information was given by the office of the law minister.

The archaic system of recording everything in paper files has made the task of maintaining records arduous and cumbersome. Not enough has been done to convert them to an electronic form which can be accessed with a single click. This is used by the bureaucracy to block information since the files have to be dug out. "There is an urgent need to improve the record management system in the country. There is a need for a task force to make the records digital, starting from the lower most villages and block level," feels Medha Patkar, leading social activist.