RTI: The promise of transparency?

Till two months ago, 70-year-old Sushila Pasad was at her wit’s end. The Vile Parle resident had spent six long years wondering when the approximate amount of Rs 3 lakh – that she was to get from the Income Tax (IT) department as tax refund – would get transferred to her account.

During this period, her tax consultant wrote several letters to the Income Tax department but to no avail. Then one day she heard about the Right to Information Act (RTI) .
“I filed an RTI application in January this year. Soon, an official from the IT department called to say that he needs some TDS papers. After I submitted them, my tax refund started coming in batches, with the first one coming in February itself. By August, I received approximately over Rs 2 lakh. Some of the money is still with them, but it should be coming in the coming days,” said Pasad, who works as an insurance agent.
While her refunds were just over Rs 3 lakh, in case of BM Barot, a professor of architecture and a practicing architect, it was even more. Seventy three-year-old Barot last year managed to get a Rs 16 lakh refund from the IT.
“It was around the time when the IT department was switching over to online system. My tax refund for assessment years 2007-08 to 2009-10 were pending with the department till last year,” said Barot, a resident of Juhu.
Barot too resorted to RTI after the letters from his chartered accountant failed to elicit any response.
Once he filed the RTI, the public information officer (PIO) gave him some response which did not satisfy him. In the first appeal, the first appellate authority (FAA) upheld the information that was given to him. “However, the response of the PIO and the FAA were the most crucial papers that we managed to get under RTI and helped us argue our case better in the new grievance stage that the government introduced,” said Nimish Gami of Tarun Mitra Mandal – an NGO that is propagating RTI movement and came to the aid of both Pasad and Barot.
A practicing chartered accountant, Gami and several others like him give free assistance to people for filing RTI applications through 11 centres of Tarun Mitra Mandal across the city.

Financial accountability

While Barot and Pasad’s cases are of individual tax payers, accountability in money is not restricted to personal matters. Residents of slums in Rafique Nagar recently filed an RTI for the first time to check if the money spent was actually being used to clear their area.
“There was one person running Dattak Vasti Yojana (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s community-led sanitation programme) in our locality and managed to have a car in a very short time even as our locality continued to remain dirty for years,” said Sher Ali, a resident of Rafique Nagar,.
Ali and his colleagues first asked for information about Dattak Vasti Yojana and the scope of its work from BMC that included money given to the contractors, money contractors pay to employees for cleaning the area, number of people employed and the area covered.
“Post information, we filed a complaint based on it and they started collecting garbage from each of the 350 slums in the neighbourhood after denying they are area in charge. Number of people they had employed from four increased to seven. They should have 25 as per rule but still there seems to be some improvement and area is cleaner,” said Ali.
The number of those filing RTI has increased in the area now. “Now four to five people takes up different issues like electricity, water supply among others,” said Dr Rama Shyam from Apnalaya, which trained the slum residents to file RTI applications.

Newer accountants of transparency

Anand Bhandare and Deepak Pawar from Marathi Abhyas Kendra are among them. The duo – who started promoting usage of Marathi for filing RTIs – has come out with a book on the performance of the corporator of their ward. “We wanted to see how much money they are given and whether it is being spent properly. Through the information obtained, we got to know that our corporator did not spend the funds entirely and gave contracts to the same person,” said Pawar.
To ensure that more number of people can audit the work, they push for putting out the contract details in Marathi. “We feel that language and development works are related. Masses will get involved if details are in the language people use,” said Pawar.
 

Non-monetised accountability

For some, accountability has taken a step further to non-monetary aspect of accountability. SK Nangia, a retired senior citizen, used the tool for one such issue. His initial application was to check why the garden in the locality was a dump. “They had spent Rs 25 lakh, but there was nothing on the ground,” said Nangia.
 “If the policy is in place, the system can work transparently,” said Nangia. Presently, Nangia has been working on the reference investigating agencies make to appropriate authorities when there is corruption or other crime. “The government has set a benchmark that appropriate authority clear such things in 90 days. However, that is not happening. Our usage of RTI ensured that files before 2014 were cleared,” said Nangia.

How the Act has empowered the masses

Total number of applications filed with the Union government after the Central Act came into existence Abey George, an RTI activist from Kerala, said the Act has been a blessing as it has give citizens access to information. Subhash Chandra Agarwal, an RTI crusader from Delhi, contests this claim.

“The Act has given citizens more than what it has given a Member of Parliament. In fact, finance minister Arun Jaitley used the RTI Act to quiz the government, when he was opposition leader, over a starred question,” said Agarwal.  In Agarwal's home town, there have been several judgements that have had an impact across the country-from the political elite to the farmers who will be affected by GM crops. “As far as trials by GM crops, the order of the commission has been challenged,” said Venkatesh Nayak, an RTI applicant whose application lead to the order.  In another case in Rajasthan, there have been two cases where RTI has lead to large-scale dissemination of information that has brought in transparency in a big way, and all of it is suo motu when users pushed for it. “The first was with respect to MNREGA. We managed to get details of all those who work along with their job cards, names of employees and the amount they get paid painted on the wall,” said Nikhil Dey, convener of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.  RTI information pertaining to government schools was also provided. Two websites provide real-time information about teachers who attend school and the number of students present for the day. In Kerala, one of the major orders that set the standard for transparency pertained to the Kerela government having to provide details of cabinet meetings. “The government refused to disclose details of cabinet meetings,” said Venkatesh Nayak.  However, RTI applications seem to hit a dead end when it comes information commissions clearing pending applications. Hyderabad-based RTI activist C J Karira said the state is a model example of all that is wrong when it comes to RTI implementation. “After the state's division, neither state (Hyderabad and Telengana) takes the commission seriously. Regionalism is not letting it work. The bureaucrats are ignoring its functioning,” said Karira.

RTI ‘killed' by weak info, say activists

After the initial burst of information dispersal, government offices have slowly restricted the disclosure of information, say activists.

“The Act did well in the first three to four years. A majority of people were given access to information they asked for,” said Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner. “The first attempt was made in 2006. Since we managed to resist the attempt to amend the Act, officials have stopped providing information. The endless wait at the commission is also ‘killing' Act,” said Gandhi.

Information commissions where the appeals and complaints have to wait endlessly, were to hear the appeals and complaints in a regular time frame was earlier part of the Act. “A timeline for SIC should be there,” said Venkatesh Nayak, member of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which studies the performance of the RTI Act. Commissioners, say activists, should be appointed to ensure transparency. “There has to be a competitive attitude in upholding the spirit of the RTI Act,” said Bhaskar Prabhu, from Mahiti Adhikar Manch. Judicial orders, which Gandhi pointed as one of threats to RTI Act said, they need to have interpretation of law on it. “There are orders that are stayed and do not get heard for years. Also, most court orders have constricted the Act as opposed to liberating it,” he said.