Gagan K.

RTI workshop

March 09th, 2008 | Category: reports

Here are the details of an RTI Workshop that I attended.

Report of the workshop on Right to Information Act 2005 organised by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi and Consumer Rights & awareness Trust, Bengaluru on 22^nd February 2008 at the Hotel King’s Kourt, JLB road, Mysore.

I attended the seminar with some of my classmates – Ravi, Kiran and others. Since the venue was King’s Kourt, more and more participants came from all the colleges. The workshop was mainly for law and journalism students of Mysore. (photos at the end of the post. Read more to see the photos)

First the workshop was inaugurated and the handbook on RTI in Kannada was released. I don’t remember his name, some person from the Mysore University Law department addressed the gathering on the constitutional point of right to information and its evolution.

After this Mr. Suresh, the principal of JSS Law College did his speech. He shared his experiences of talking about RTI with a civil engineer who observed that the Act will bring a revolution or will be scrapped by a powerful lobby. But Mr. Suresh observed that an Act can never bring a revolution and it is up to the people to being a revolution using the Act. He told about the increasing number of frivolous RTI complaints and shed light on the fact that in USA, due to the increasing number of RTI application, the Government had made provision for more funds.

He also said about government servants who were complaining that their daily work duties were affected. And he said, “government officials are the servants of the people and serving the people is their duty.” He mentioned about RTI being used as a tool for blackmailing. He said, if the government employee is lawful in his activities, there is no need for him to fear.

He said that even private authorities like JSS institutions were also coming under the purview of RTI. He gave an idea for the students to try getting their exam answer scripts through RTI instead of paying more money. I am not sure whether the information already available through alternative means can be requested through RTI.

After Suresh, it was YG Muralidhar who started to address the gathering. He said that the RTI Act came into force fully from 12^th October 2005. It applies to whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir. He confirmed that private institutions like JSS, colleges, NGO would come well within the purview of the RTI Act. This is based on the principle that all those bodies which get financial aid, land and other facilities from the Government can come under RTI. He said that the information pertaining to the tenders of the defence department could be got under RTI. He cited the example of Coffin scam. Information of public interest can be got. The Act excludes certain organizations like RAW and others which have information which is related to the security of India.

What is information?

The Act gives an exhaustive definition of this term. It includes: records, documents, emails. . . Quite long definition, which I could not note down (you can find it in the bare act of the RTI Act) . Right to information also includes right to inspection, right to get samples and examine. He also said that under the Act, we can demand for video interview of competitive exams. Well, this was a great provision I felt. That too in Karnataka, we have seen the great KPSC scams and recently KAS posts being filled for caste, money and marriage too!!

Who gives the information?

The Act requires that all Government authorities maintain a catalogue of their files and data. According to section 4 (1) (a) of the Act, all the Government authorities are required to publish 18 types of information suo motu.

Off the topic, Mr. Muralidhar said that Rs. 250-500 was collected from the Village children who wanted cycles under the recent Cycle project of our recently fallen Government.

He said that there is no need to mention the reason for getting the information. We have to get an acknowledgement for the application we submit. He attracted us to an order made by the Government way back in 1960 which makes it mandatory for all public employees to give acknowledgement for whatever applications received. Where the information related to life and liberty of a person, the concerned information officer is required to give the information within 48 hours.

Those informations which are exempted under the Act are:

-Information which is concerned with sovereignty and integrity of our country.

-information forbidden by a court of law (expressly specified)

-breach of privilege

-trade secrets, Intellectual property.

-information which is obtained in fiduciary position (for eg. income tax)

-information which endagers the life or physical safety of a person.

-information which impedes the process of investigation.

-cabinet papers till the final decision is taken.

There is a good test for determining whether the information can be disclosed or not. All information which can be accessed by the Members of the Legislative assembly and Members of the parliament can be disclosed to the citizen. Hence the Act places a normal citizen and MLA, MP’s on the same footing.

Before concluding, Mr. Muralidhar told an interesting fact, a toilet was built for the travel savvy graama vaastavya mukhyamantri Shri Shri Shri H D Kumara Swamigalu at the cost of Rs. 1.6 lakh!!

After Muralidhar, a lecturer from the Vidya Vardhaka Law College, Mr. Manjappa (my friend said his name is Munjappa, but I am not sure about his name). He explained the Act and said there was no cost for appeal. Where an official fails to provide information, he will be fined Rs. 250 a day which will be cut from his monthly salary.

Manjappa said, a citizen or juristic person can file the RTI. He said about the public trust doctrine where the State acts as a trustee for all its citizens.

Mr. Manjappa made a very clear and courageous statement. He said that all mathas, mandiras, madrasas, temples, churches should come under RTI Act. He said that even Dharmasthala trust, Adichunchanagiri Mata, or any JSS mata should come under RTI. He said “these mata’s are running out of the donations of the public. Hence public have a right to know how their money is being used.” I felt this statement was very bold statement he did. In today’s scenario where we see pontiffs and seers leading a posh life, getting paada pooje done for money, erecting huge temples worth 80 crores (you know which mata), using donation money for making gold ornaments for gods, it is necessary that we bring them under RTI.

There was a tea break.. and meanwhile the hotel’s untrained staff after trying and trying had succeeded in sending the laptop signal to the projector. There was a video projection of a song called “jaanne ka hak” (right to know). I was wondering what the video was all about. But as the song was being played for few lines, I realised the very nice meaning of the song. The song came with a subtitle.

Here are some lines of the song:
I found the song video on youtube. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ1yvrMDUMU

My forests have a right to know
Why the branches are leafless
With no springs of life.

My rivers have a right to know
Why factories dump their poison
As if rivers are lifeless.

My village has a right to know
Why there is no power
No roads, no ration open

My vote has a right to know
Why big promises are made one day
Then no work for 5 years.

My Ram has a right to know
My Rahman has a right to know
Why we shed blood?
Are we not human beings?
(the most moving line I felt. This line was backed by a scene of a communal riot)

My life has a right to live
Now why we live without right..
It is as good as being not alive.

The song was an excellent one. The ending credits indicated that the video was done by Kabir for Loknad. www.kabir.org.in . Parvarthan. The video had a man and a lady both dressed in very simple Indian dresses and holding some native instruments and singing this above song in Hindi. The first lines were sung normally. And there was a pause before the song went to the next line. And we were in full admiration when the question was asked. Muralidhar told us that both of them were husband and wife and they are IIT alumni’s!

Mr. Muralidhar told us a shocking information that Rs. 23.66 crores was spent by the recent 20-20 Government (BJP-JDS) for the purpose of Helicopter! And I can recall a post on churumuri.wordpress.com. Read that post here. where it was reported that power minister Shri Shri Shri H D Revanna to satisfy his beliefs of raahu-kaala, gooli-kaala had made the helicopter flying at the surface of the ground for hours.

Next lecture was by Mr. Anil Kumar, a doctor by profession and later learned law and now fights his own case. He was a tall man in a green kurta, jeans pant, sporting a French beard, holding a fresh Wadhwa Company RTI book, and some copies of judgement papers.

He asked us all a question: “how many of you feel Aishwarya Rai is beautiful.” Probably because of the marriage factor, there were only 3-4 hands up. Then he said, imagine Aishwarya Rai as a foetus inside her mother’s womb. She would look so bad. His message was that the RTI Act as of the present day is still in its primitive stage and when it grows into a normal human being, it would look as beautiful as Aishwarya Rai.

Then he made a very good statement. Artcle 19(1) gives us freedom of speech and expression. But “how can I express without knowing” – This was one of the best statements in the whole workshop I loved.

He told about his own experience where he asked for the information is English and he got the reply in Kannada. When he approached the court, it held that “replying in a language alien to the applicant is as good as denying the information.” He also said how he requested for ONE RUPEE compensation from a Government official.

He shared how difficult it was for him to get a building plan approved by the authorities (I am not sure if it was MUDA) without paying a single pie of bribe. He said that whatever he paid, he made sure, he wanted a bill for it.

Apart from other fees, the authority asked him to buy National Savings Certificate (NSC) worth Rs. 26,000/- in order to approve the plan. He question why he had to buy the NSC in his RTI application. On the final orders, the court asked the government officials to clarify about the National Savings Certificate.

I have seen public servants asking us to make a National Savings Certificate to get a driving license and other things. But it was after listening to Mr. Anil Kumar that I realised that buying NSC was not a mandatory provision but was done in order to raise funds for some superior officials.

Mr. Anil Kumar told us to be as clear as possible while filing the RTI application. He gave an example: A wife wanted to have a very wild sex with her husband. So she told her husband “honey, tie me up, do whatever you want to.” The husband tied his wife and had sex with his neighbour. Only few people including me enjoyed this joke.

And to remind you, this person Anil Kumar is the one who owns a spa or resort (whatever you call) somewhere near Chamundi Hills. He successfully fought a land grabbing case against Shri Shri Ganapathi Sachchidaananda Swaamiji (formerly not well known as money-order post man). He also filed many RTI applications in th MCC and when he dint get a reply, he dragged them to court and made the officials sweat.

All along the workshop, Muralidhar was very humourous.He was repeatedly telling the audience that we can approach Mr. Anil Kumar to file our cases and also get have a free stay at his resort. And Anil Kumar said that he could not hear anything. Similarly, Muralidhar was also telling that one faculty member of JSS Law college would be arranging tea coffe out of his pocket for the RTI meetings.

Before concluding, one thing.. this Hotel King’s Kourt – the 4-5-6 or 9 star hotel staff was not responsive enough in getting more chairs and setting right the projector and most importantly for me – getting extra plates for lunch . The hall was not well equipped with good acoustics.

After the workshop, I was like.. I had learned some practical aspects of filing an RTI. Now on my way of filing my first RTI.

Photos taken at the venue:

Inauguration