Why is the verdict against electoral bonds by SC bench led by DY Chandrachud considered a 'landmark'?

The Economic Times: Delhi: Wednesday, 6 November 2024.

In a historic judgement on February 15, 2024, the Supreme Court of India, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, unanimously declared the Electoral Bond Scheme 'unconstitutional', bringing an end to a controversial mechanism of political funding introduced in 2018. This decision, a significant addition to Justice Chandrachud’s legacy of landmark rulings, addressed concerns over transparency, voters’ rights, and potential quid pro quo arrangements between corporations and political entities.
Background of the Electoral Bond Scheme
The Electoral Bond Scheme was first introduced as a part of the Finance Bill in 2017 by then-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who argued it was essential for “cleansing” political funding. However, since it was included as a Money Bill, it bypassed comprehensive parliamentary scrutiny, leading to concerns over a potential breach of Article 110 of the Indian Constitution. The Finance Bill classified electoral bonds as a legitimate channel for anonymous donations to political parties, with the goal of minimising unregulated cash contributions.
Following its formal notification by the Department of Economic Affairs on January 2, 2018, the scheme allowed donors, both corporate and individual, to purchase electoral bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI) to fund political parties. While the scheme initially permitted bond sales on 70 days annually, an amendment in 2022 extended this to 85 days in election years, a change coinciding with elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Political Controversy and Opposition
From the outset, electoral bonds faced criticism across the political spectrum. The Congress Party announced in 2019 its intent to eliminate the scheme if it came to power, citing concerns about its lack of transparency. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) became the only national party to reject donations through electoral bonds altogether, arguing that the scheme allowed for opaque financial flows, undermining the spirit of democracy.
Supreme Court’s Verdict
The five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Chandrachud, ruled that the scheme violated the Right to Information (RTI) Act and voters' right to know about political funding under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. The court found that the anonymous nature of the donations hindered voters’ access to critical information, potentially skewing democratic processes. Furthermore, the judgement emphasised that the scheme fostered an environment ripe for quid pro quo exchanges between corporations and political parties.
The verdict also struck down amendments to several statutes, including the Representation of People Act, Companies Act, and Income Tax Act, which had facilitated the operation of the Electoral Bond Scheme.
The judgement required the State Bank of India to disclose the identities of both donors and recipients to the Election Commission of India (ECI) by March 6, 2024, which the ECI would then publish online by March 13, 2024.
Implementation Challenges and SBI's Compliance
In the wake of the judgement, SBI encountered difficulties in meeting the March 6 deadline for handing over donor details to the ECI, prompting a request for an extension from the Supreme Court. However, the bench, committed to upholding transparency, refused this request. SBI subsequently compiled, and the ECI published the information on March 13, making donor and recipient details accessible to the public for the first time since the scheme’s inception.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud’s Legacy
This ruling on electoral bonds stands as one of many landmark judgments overseen by Chief Justice Chandrachud, who assumed the role as India’s 50th Chief Justice on November 9, 2022. Throughout his tenure, Justice Chandrachud has played a pivotal role in transformative judgments, including the Ram Janmabhoomi verdict, decisions on privacy rights, decriminalisation of homosexuality, women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple, and the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

The Reality of Transgender Welfare Boards in India: An RTI Investigation - Vaivab Das

The Quint: Delhi: Wednesday, 6 November 2024.

This investigation has been conducted through RTIs, first-hand narratives from trans welfare boards & activists.
In his speech on the last day of the Budget Session of the 17th Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked:
"Those who are on the margins have been reassured that there is a government.”
These margins or “Lakshman Rekha” (circle of protection) remind us of the predicament of Sita, in the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana, who was asked to trust the protection of men against the violence of other men. But for transgender persons in India, neither side of the margin seems to offer a dignified life.
On one hand, 19 states and Union Territories (UTs) across India still don’t have a welfare body for transgender persons, as legally stipulated. Of these, four are UTs controlled by the Union government, and eight states have the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the party in power or as an alliance partner in the government.
The 17 states and UTs that do have a welfare board for trans persons are mostly running rudderless without a policy framework, compliance mechanism, or any power.
These non-transparent, non-accountable, and in some cases, non-existent bureaucratic bodies are turning into phantom forums that act as a countermeasure to diffuse people’s movements that rise to hold governments accountable to their legislative promises.
On the other hand, only 5.6 percent of transgender persons (as per the 2011 census) in the country have applied for a transgender identity card revealing the inaccessible nature of identity card application and the futility of such a document for a marginalised transgender person when the state doesn’t actually provide rights or welfare measures that benefit them.
This investigation through RTIs, first-hand narratives from various transgender welfare board members, trans/queer rights activists, and judicial observations, reveals compelling reasons for India to shift away from its tendency to celebrate nominal representations, and demand transformative reforms to right the historical wrongs carried out against transgender and gender non-conforming persons.
Boards Exist, But Only on Paper:
Rule 10(1) of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2020 states, “The appropriate government shall constitute a welfare board for the transgender persons for the purpose of protecting their rights and interests of, and facilitating access to schemes and welfare measures framed by the government.”
Presently, 17 states and Union Territories have notified a transgender welfare/justice/development board under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 and Rule 10(1). This includes Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
We took a closer look at these notified boards, and this is what we found.

• The majority of the states which have notified a transgender welfare board have held less than one meeting per year since their creation.
• The functioning of welfare boards in Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Manipur and Tripura remains undisclosed till today.
• Gujarat had notified a transgender welfare board in 2019 in collaboration with UNAIDS. According to its members, the board did not hold a single meeting until 14 October this year – five years after the board was formed.
• Of the remaining 12 states and UTs, only four held meetings in 2023 – namely, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chandigarh, and Maharashtra.
• In Mizoram, not a single meeting of the board has been convened since its creation.
• In states like Manipur, since 2017, the welfare board remains practically defunct. Last year, the Governor of Manipur reconstituted the 17-member board with only one transgender woman and one transgender man represented in the body.
• This year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a PIL filed by Yashika, a transgender student, observed that the Chandigarh transgender welfare board has been acting as a cosmetic feature for the government and did not meet sufficiently to discharge its duties.
• The Amicus Curiae (an impartial adviser to a court of law), appointed by the Kerala High Court in Kabeer v State of Kerala 2021, noted in their report that the Kerala State Transgender Justice Board had not convened a single meeting in the reported year.

The National Council for Transgender Persons constituted under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has just held two meetings in the last four years since its creation.

Only five states have developed a state-level transgender policy, namely, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam, Odisha, and Maharashtra. Assam is the only state in India which has extended quasi-judicial powers to its welfare board. It is a form of delegated authority to ensure compliance with its recommendations under various provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019.
These boards are also not immune to political abandonment when there is a change of ruling party in the state. For instance, the Maharashtra transgender welfare board was a brainchild of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) an alliance of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and Congress and was allocated Rs 5 crore in the 2020 Maharashtra Budget.
In 2022, when the MVA government was dislodged from power by the Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), no subsequent budgetary allocations were made for the welfare of transgender communities in the following fiscal years.
The Trips and Traps of Representation:
In 2014, in the NALSA vs Union of India case, the Supreme Court of India accorded constitutional recognition to a transgender person’s right to self-identify their gender, and judicial directives were given to appropriate governments (Union and state) to assist their lives.
In 2019, the Indian Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act (TG Act), which envisioned a two-pronged approach to reach out to transgender persons – an inclusive approach by formulating a transgender identity card to ‘quantify’ what transness means for the state; and a convergent approach by constituting a nodal body (the welfare board) as a forum comprising of transgender persons and bureaucrats from various in-line ministries/departments at the Union or state level. This nodal body has to protect the rights and interests of transgender persons and facilitate their access to schemes and welfare measures framed by the government.
Both these approaches are riddled with flaws.
Representation of transgender persons in the governance apparatus constructed around the Transgender Act has two issues the trip and the trap.
First, the Government of India, like its British colonisers, lumped various indigenous and gender non-conforming identities under the single label of "transgender”. This oversimplifies the diversity of gender-non-conforming experiences and identities in India.
In states where boards do exist, it is trans women who have had gender affirmation surgeries who are represented most. Trans men, non-binary persons, and intersex persons barely get a seat.
Ani Dutta, a professor at the University of Iowa, in their research, notes the tendency of Indian bureaucracy to create complicated regulatory rules around judiciary ordained recognitions. In the context of India’s stark socio-economic disparity, only those with resources, community networks, and relative social privilege can navigate these bureaucratic processes to get a transgender identity card.
There are intricate social divisions within the transgender communities. Trans women who have undergone gender affirmation surgeries enjoy a higher social status than trans women who have not undergone nirvana (ritualised castration) or gender affirmation surgeries. This understanding of gender "authenticity" is implicitly replicated in the Transgender Act Rules 2020. Section 6 and Section 7 create two class groups – Section 6 enables someone to self-identify as transgender, but Section 7 adds a condition to the principle of self-identification that requires medical intervention to identify as a man or woman. This classification undermines the spectrum of gender fluidity endemic to India.
Trans women who can undergo nirvana or gender affirmation surgeries and identify as "female" are the most dominant, visible and debated narrative of India's story on the principle of self-identification. The predicament of kothis (a term used for trans women who have not had gender affirmation surgeries, and for gay or bisexual men in some contexts), trans men, intersex persons and genderqueer persons, remain sidelined. It is why the possession of a government-issued transgender ID card under its current provisions is becoming a “representation (power) trip” for some on the margins of our society.
For instance, in 2023, when the Hyderabad North Zone police arrested 19 transgender women, “the community mobilisation to resist these illegal arrests was impeded by discussions on how ‘men dress up as a transgender persons’ to run begging rackets in the city and bring a bad name to the trans community,” a genderqueer activist (who prefers to be unnamed) privy to discussions on a trans-queer forum says. In the backdrop of this “authentic us” versus “Imposter them” politics, 19 gender non-conforming persons were stripped naked by the police to examine their genitals.
There is also little diversity in who gets represented in welfare boards, where they are constituted. Kanmani Ray, a lawyer and a transgender woman, says, “Not all transgender persons live in gharanas/jamaats, not all transgender persons can separate from their natal families, forms of violence experienced by transgender persons are different. What we see in welfare boards is that intersex persons and trans men are sidelined in discussions. Like any other marginalised social group, we face intra-community violence and unequal power relations.”
The bureaucracy of welfare boards ignores these realities.
The fact that these boards have transgender persons in them is a “representation trap” they offer public visibility to marginalised persons but also make them appear politically complicit in the government’s apathy. While trans and gender non-conforming persons look up to the members of the welfare boards to effect change in their material conditions, the representatives themselves have little power to change policy or even call meetings, as is evidenced by the number of sittings of these boards in most states and UTs.
In 2023, when a group of transgender members of the Telangana transgender welfare board wrote to the additional director general of Telangana Police seeking action against a gang of men who were routinely robbing and assaulting trans persons across Hyderabad, the police department ignored these petitions, according to activists. The members of the welfare board could do little as the body has no quasi-judicial powers to investigate the issue or take any action unlike the national and state human rights commissions, women’s commissions, and child welfare bodies.
Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli, an RTI activist, says, “My nominated tenure to the transgender welfare board of my state started and ended without the nodal ministry or its officials outlining the policy framework and power of the board.”
The Truth About Trans 'Rights':
In the 10 years since the NALSA judgment, the needle of social equality hasn’t moved in the “rights” direction in India. This truth is most apparent in the returning figure of a trans person to the judicial corridors to plead for promised but undelivered rights.
Sangama and Nisha Gulur, on behalf of Jeeva, an organisation working for the upliftment of transgender persons, had to file a PIL with the Karnataka High Court in 2020 for horizontal reservation for trans persons in public employment opportunities. In 2021, Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli and others in Telangana had to knock on the Telangana High Court’s doors for life-supporting amenities during COVID-19.
Kantaro Kondagiri had to petition the Odisha High Court in 2022 to seek a trans woman's right to inherit the pension of a parent, which in law is made available to the unmarried daughters of any deceased pensioner. Zena Sagar, a Dalit transgender student of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, had to move to the Calcutta High Court in 2023 after being denied hostel accommodation because of her gender identity.
Transgender persons struggling for livelihood and resources are still viewed as a public nuisance by the state.
Earlier this year, Pune's Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar imposed a begging ban against transgender persons in the city with absolute disregard to the 2021 advisory circular issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs which said that obstructing a transgender person’s access to public space would be a violation of section 18 of the TG Act.
Contrary to PM Modi’s resounding claim “We have given transgender persons an identity” the latest data from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment confirm only 5.6 percent of the enumerated transgender persons in 2011 have applied for a transgender identity card. Why would trans and gender non-conforming persons enlist themselves on the state’s registers without the Indian government proactively working on various dimensions of citizenship like equal and dignified access to family, property, housing, healthcare, social security, education, and employment?
A cursory look at the Union government’s budget allocations and actual expenditure on trans welfare explains why transgender persons continue to exist on the margins in a welfare-centric polity like India. In 2021-22, the government allocated Rs 20 crore for the Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons however, only Rs 1.91 crore was spent. In 2022-23, the allocation increased to Rs 30 crore, but the actual amount spent was only 0.4% of this allocation a paltry Rs 12 lakh.
During the last Interim Budget presentation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that providing more people access to existing government welfare schemes is the welfare story of PM Modi’s 10 years of governance. However, the exclusion of transgender persons from the Gender Budget Statement and the systematic refusal to mainstream their access to government programmes and schemes beyond the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment shred these high claims.
Raghavi, a lawyer and trans rights activist from Delhi, says,
“The insufficient investment in gender-inclusive infrastructure across public institutions and scattered sensitisation programmes for various in-line departments discredits the government’s much-touted saturation-approach.”
Reform or Reimagine?:
The reform sought by trans activists we spoke to has three urgent demands – power redistribution, inclusive representation, and decentralisation.
Grace Banu, a Dalit trans rights activist from Tamil Nadu, points out a fundamental flaw in the design of transgender welfare boards. “The majority of decision-makers on the boards are cisgender men or women, the staff aiding the functioning of these boards are cisgender. Transgender persons are a nominated minority in the composition of a board constituted in their name.”
Vyjayanti adds, “The design of the transgender welfare board does not meaningfully redistribute power to transgender persons, who hold representation on these boards. The power to convene a meeting rest with a bureaucrat, the power to publish the deliberations of these meetings remains with the nodal ministry/department, and the implementation of actionable points remains dependent on the goodwill of various department officials.”
The nominal representation of trans persons on the board without any power makes them a rubber duck to face pushback from trans-queer communities on the government’s inaction. “We get a seat, not say,” remarks Vyjayanti.
Rituparna Neog, associate vice chairperson of the Assam transgender welfare board, explains the material limitations of these boards. “The lack of annual allocation of funds for the functioning of the welfare board impairs the ability of its transgender members to intervene in any emergency situations related to the community.”
The notion that social work is a self-financed undertaking restricts the participation of working-class and unemployed community organisers in these nominated roles. No welfare board in India offers its members a nominal salary to carry out the board's work. Except for Tamil Nadu, various welfare boards in India do not even provide travel allowance to their transgender members to attend board meetings.
Grace, Vyjayanti, and Rituparna agree on the fact that most welfare boards do not have prescribed policy guidelines for their nominated members to push for an actionable agenda, nor are these bodies accorded quasi-judicial authority like various human or women's rights commissions to enforce compliance. These boards need to be converted into statutory independent commissions with legal permits to oversee compliance with the government agenda and take cognisance of human rights violations being committed against trans and gender non-conforming persons within their administrative jurisdiction.
Regarding inclusive representation, Arun Karthik (he/him), a member of the Tamil Nadu transgender welfare board and trans man, explains the structural inequality within these representative boards. “Currently in Tamil Nadu, whenever a trans man wants to report an incident in the welfare board meetings, other members (bureaucrats and trans women) do not provide them equal space or attention,” he says.
He adds, “The schemes and benefits being provided by the Tamil Nadu government are disproportionately offered to trans women. Till 2023, the government orders released by the Social Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu (the nodal body for the transgender welfare board) used to only mention the term Thirunangai (the Tamil word for transgender women) as beneficiaries. It was a term popularised by the late ex-chief minister K Karunanidhi for trans women in the state. The government officials repeatedly reject the applications of trans men under these schemes as these circulars do not mention the term trans man or Thirunambi (nambi denotes man).”
It is a telling reality of the popular imagination that remains hinged on the idea that transgender means trans women.
Further, there is a need for decentralisation. Tashi Choedup, a trans-feminine Buddhist monastic (nunk) and nominated member of the Telangana transgender welfare board, suggests, “The government needs to decentralise its work of actualising trans rights. Local transgender persons, with a more situated awareness of local politics and conditions, need to be involved and employed at a district level to enable the transfer of welfare schemes and opportunities to transgender constituents.”
Don Hasar, a trans/queer rights activist and community organiser from Himachal Pradesh, says, “I live in a mountainous terrain, where even to beg the government to enact the provisions of the Transgender Act or access the ID card, is a time-consuming and expensive ordeal. One has to travel eight hours from the mountains to the valley to furnish a representation to the designated department and further wait for a bureaucrat to entertain our query. For a lot of unemployed and working-class trans persons, it is not feasible in terms of time, money and access.”
Disha Pinki Sheikh, the state spokesperson of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and trans woman, says problems need to be seen within their context. “Transgender persons living in Mumbai have different issues from the ones in Pune or Vidarbha. Our capacity to collectivise as a bargaining group also differs. For a community which has been historically discriminated against, there is a greater need for local participation than nominal representation. The government needs to involve transgender persons in different regions of the state to make and implement a policy in a participatory sense,” she says.
“For instance, when the government announces an entrepreneurial or start-up scheme at a state level and does not notify its eligibility rules and application process to its various districts, a transgender person from a rural area in Nagpur would not have the capacity to follow up on the opportunity like a person who has the support of CBOs/NGOs concentrated in cities,” Disha explains.
“In urban localities, there is greater collaboration between different civil society actors – human rights groups, lawyer networks, and media professionals. Hence, the work of holding the government accountable is shared. In less affluent regions, it is a lonely battle. The transgender applicant has to carry the burden of informing the local government offices of such a scheme, and then await its implementation at a district level. If it does not come through, they must again carry the burden of summoning the appropriate government to a court of law or give up opportunities in silence.”
There is a constitutional urgency to these demands. However, the entire framework of transgender welfare boards carries one caveat with no easy answers. The welfare boards which presently act in an advisory capacity have transgender persons as members who are appointed by the government, rather than elected through any democratic means or communitarian consensus. Thus, it becomes difficult to ascertain whether one privileges the government's will which appoints them, or the community with which they share their identity.
Moreover, the consensus across the political aisle on restricting transgender and gender non-conforming persons’ direct access to the power of law-making and limiting it to welfare boards is symptomatic of India’s pervasive transphobia and the reluctance of various governments and political parties to invest in changing prevailing social attitudes among its population.
(Vaivab Das is a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California Berkeley. They research at intersections of gender, sexuality and law.)
(This story was produced as part of the InQlusive Newsrooms Media Fellowship 2023. InQlusive Newsrooms is a collaborative project by The News Minute and Queer Chennai Chronicles, supported by Google News Initiative, and is working on making the Indian media more LGBTQIA+ sensitive.)

‘Only law for people weakened’: Nearly 2 decades on, gaping holes in RTI machinery: By: Shivnarayan Rajpurohit

News laundry: Delhi: Wednesday, 6 November 2024.
A recent report had flagged increasing pendency and defunct commissions across the country.

“Since 1947, the RTI (Right to Information) Act is the only law which was exercised by people. This is the only law under which officials are accountable… But in Jharkhand, that right stands withdrawn.”
Sunil Mahto, a Jharkhand-based high court lawyer and an RTI activist, lamented how the state’s information commission has been non-functional for the past four years due to the non-appointment of commissioners.
Information commissions impose penalties on erring officials and hear second appeals. And in the absence of one, he said, public information officers who are mandated to provide information to RTI applicants have been “emboldened”. “They are now more unwilling to share information because they know there won’t be any repercussions for denial of information.”
Jharkhand is only one among four states with a defunct state information commission.
The RTI machinery, in fact, is struggling in many places across India. There are over 4 lakh pending appeals and complaints, and the backlog is increasing, suggests an annual report recently released by the Satark Nagarik Sangathan a transparency outfit which had filed 174 RTI applications to arrive at these findings.
This defeats the key objectives of the RTI law, which came into effect in 2005 after a long battle by members of a civil rights organisation, the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, in Rajasthan. It had all started with the outfit’s members crusading for minimum wages, and eventually requiring access to government documents and information to secure their rights.
“Now, bigger issues such as electoral bonds are raised through RTI. They can shake the foundation of governments. Because of this, governments are making efforts to weaken the act by not appointing commissioners.” Shankar Singh, MKSS cofounder
Delayed decisions:
At least four state commissions in Jharkhand, Telangana, Tripura and Goa have neither commissioners nor chief commissioners. There are five states where commissions are functioning without their heads. Many are working at reduced capacity.
More than 4 lakh appeals and complaints are pending with the central information commission (CIC) and 28 state information commissions (SICs). For context, the Supreme Court has almost five times less pendency.
But not all complaints and appeals reach the hearing stage. Many are dismissed before being admitted. For example, Maharashtra returned 42 percent of the total 19,347 appeals or complaints because of deficiencies in formatting or lack of documents, thereby frustrating information seekers. There were not many who would re-submit the corrected appeal. For example, 96 percent of the appeals or complaints returned by CIC were not resubmitted by applicants.
The role of CIC and SICs is crucial in the RTI framework as denial of information by government authorities can be challenged before them as a second appeal. A huge backlog at these commissions results in delays for decisions. Orders of SICs and ICs can be challenged only in high courts and the Supreme Court.
The 2019 amendments to the act further weakened it. And the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, removed a section in RTI that dealt with personal information. Now DPDA has ensured that no personal information is shared. Earlier, under the RTI Act, denial of personal information was not absolute.
“Denial of personal information is one of the biggest threats,” said Shankar Singh, co-founder of MKSS.
As more and more people have started using RTIs, governments have realised that questions are not related to only pensions, wages or other personal issues, Singh said. “Now, bigger issues such as electoral bonds are raised through RTI. They can shake the foundation of governments. Because of this, governments are making efforts to weaken the act by not appointing commissioners,” he said.
Defunct machinery:
Among the 29 SICs and CIC, Jharkhand’s has been non-functional for the longest period of time: more than four years. Tripura has the second-worst track record at over three years, followed by Telangana (19 months) and Goa (seven months).
Lawyer Mahto said a few petitions have been filed in the Jharkhand high court as a second appeal. “But how many can approach the high court? Not many. The high court did not decide on the second appeals but directed that as soon as the commission is formed, these second appeals should be heard on priority basis,” he said.
Just before the state election announcement, the Jharkhand government had issued an advertisement to fill up the posts. But with the model code of conduct, the process has come to a standstill, said Mahto.
People have “no recourse to the independent appellate mechanism prescribed under the RTI Act if their right to information is violated” read the SNS report prepared by Anjali Bhardwaj, Amrita Johri, among others.
This is despite the Supreme Court 2019 order that proper functioning of commissions is vital for effective implementation of the RTI Act.
In addition, five commissions in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Odisha did not have chief information commissioners.
The act mandates that each commission have 10 commissioners and a chief information commissioner. Despite this, several states and even the CIC are functioning with reduced capacity. For example, CIC has been functioning with just three commissioners, including its chief, for the past one year.
Backlog:
The Maharashtra SIC, which has the chunkiest backlog at 1,10,000, has been functioning with just six commissioners. “The apex court, in its February 2019 judgment, had observed that given the large pendency in the Maharashtra SIC, it would be appropriate if the commission functioned at full strength,” read the report. However, the Supreme Court’s expectation from Maharashtra is yet to be fulfilled.
In the last five years, the backlog in 29 commissions has increased by around 80 percent, showed the report. From 2019 to 2024, the number of pending cases jumped from 2.18 lakh to 4.05 lakh.
Maharashtra has the highest number of pending cases, followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
The SNS also estimated the time taken by each commission depending on their monthly rate to dispose of appeals and complaints. The estimate shows that at least 14 commissions would take one year to dispose of each matter.
Chhattisgarh would take the longest: five years and two months. Each matter in Bihar, Odisha and Arunachal has to wait for more than three years before hearing. It is two years in Punjab and Haryana.
Applications returned:
The act does not prescribe any format in which an appeal or complaint could be filed before SICs or CIC. However, some states have prescribed rules on formats and lists of documents to be attached with the appeal or complaint.
Seven information commissions had returned appeals and complaints because of procedural deficiencies.
The CIC has returned fewer than 14,000 appeals or complaints against 19,347 registrations – clocking a return rate of 42 percent. Around 96 percent of these returned appeals or complaints were not resubmitted with correction.
“In this context, the practice being followed by the CIC and some SICs, of returning a very large number of appeals and complaints without passing any orders, becomes extremely problematic. It also creates an apprehension that this is perhaps a way of frustrating information seekers in a bid to reduce backlogs in ICs since many people, especially the poor and marginalised, would feel discouraged and often give up if their appeal/complaint is returned,” read the report.
While many argue that imposing a penalty on public information officers for denial of information may work as a deterrent for officials who willfully deny information, ICs are empowered to impose such penalties, up to Rs 25,000. But such fines have been imposed in only 3 percent of the cases disposed of by ICs, according to the SNS analysis.
The first chief information commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah, believes that imposing penalties blindly may not necessarily bring about a change. “If challenged in courts, such penalty orders have to stand the judicial test too,” he said.
The RTI Act also prescribes SICs and CIC to publish their annual reports on their website. As many as 18 of the 29 ICs were yet to publish their annual report for 2022-23.
Shankar Singh of MKSS said their fight to strengthen the act would continue. “One thing that requires utmost attention is that a copy of an RTI application should also be shared with the police station concerned in order to protect the applicant.”
The Whistleblower Protection Bill has been pending with Parliament since 2014.

Kerala having to pay more than 80 per cent of expenses under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY scheme, RTI reveals: By Nirmal Jovial

The Week: Kerala: Tuesday, 5 November 2024.

Hospitals in Kerala have incurred expenses to the tune of Rs 4,709.3 crore under the scheme since 2019. Out of this amount to be paid to the hospitals, the Centre's contribution is just Rs 777.9 crore, and the state's is Rs 3,919.5 crore
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently extended the Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance scheme to all citizens aged 70 years and above. However, the response to an RTI inquiry shows that states like Kerala are already facing disproportionate financial stress under the PM-JAY scheme.
Cost of implementation of PM-JAY schemes are supposed to be shared between the Union and state governments. Kerala signed an agreement with National Health Authority on October 31, 2018, and constituted State Health Agency (SHA) for implementing the scheme in the state as Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP).

Subsequently, the project was started in Kerala on April 1, 2019. The RTI documents in possession of activist Raju Vazhakkala shows that since then, the hospitals in Kerala have incurred expenses to the tune of Rs 4,709.3 crore under the scheme. Notably, out of this amount to be paid to the hospitals, the Centre's contribution is just Rs 777.9 crore, and the state's is Rs 3,919.5 crore. As of August 31, 2024, the total pending arrears to be given to hospitals is Rs 1,681.5 crore, with the Centre's share being around Rs 75 crore.
Kerala is currently providing coverage under the KASP to close to 42 lakh economically and socially backward families. However, experts note that the Centre's norms consider only close to 24 lakh families as below poverty line. Notably, the Centre is sharing the burden of PM-JAY only in case of these 24 lakh families. In case of the rest of the beneficiaries, state is managing 100 per cent of the amount.
Now, the insurance for the elderly will be added to this. According to Census 2011, the proportion of elderly in Kerala is 12.7 per cent as against 8.0 per cent at the all-India level. The corresponding figures in 1961 was 5.1 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively. By 2036, the state is expected to have 23 per cent of its population under the elderly category.

Right to Information : From silence to access: Journey towards information rights : Kwasi Ampofo Fianko

Graphic Online: Ghana: Tuesday, 5 November 2024.
For the first time after independence, our right to information as Ghanaian citizens was included in the Fourth Republican Constitution and duly adopted through a referendum on April 28, 1992.

Two decades after capturing the Right to Information in the 1992 Constitution, the Right to Information Act 2019 (Act 989) was passed into law and assented to on May 19, 2019, to the relief of many, particularly, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) who championed the cause for the enactment.
The lack of political will to pass and implement the Right to Information law in Ghana ranked top among the reasons for the delay in passing the RTI Act.
With the 20-year lag in passing the law, many feel that Ghana missed a golden opportunity to etch its name into the “RTI Hall of Fame” as one of the first countries in Africa to implement such a law.
Typical with every novel policy or law, setbacks are inevitable.
Research:
Research on the effectiveness of RTI laws in other jurisdictions, especially in developing countries, reveals a lack of political will, infrastructural and record management deficits, institutional barriers, traditions of secrecy, low public awareness, etc.
Indeed, enacting an access-to-information law may be a necessary but insufficient step towards meaningful access to information, given that the implementation and enforcement of the law are the most critical and challenging stages, which require a willingness from the state and its inhabitants.
On the side of the government, positive strides have been made towards recruitment and training of over 300 information officers to facilitate access to information in public institutions across the country.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Information has carved out an Access to Information Division under the Information Service Department to manage and provide backend support to these information officers.
A Right to Information Commission has been established to primarily regulate, promote and enforce the rights granted to citizens in the 1992 Constitution. These interventions demonstrate a commitment of the government to provide a framework for implementing the law.
Concerns:
Despite government efforts, there are concerns about the extent to which citizens have embraced their right to information.
Though it is early days yet, a critical consideration of the statistics on the requests for information, four years into Act 989 implementation, suggests that not so many people are aware of the existence of such a right.
Traditionally, obtaining information from public institutions in Ghana is an arduous task. Scores of Ghanaians dread walking into public offices to seek information, and the hitherto absence of designated persons to handle inquests, unspecified timelines, and the lack of punitive sanctions enabled public institutions to frustrate access to information.
Further, the unspoken rule of parting with some “illegal” money for a legitimate service or request from public institutions has served as a disincentive for citizens.
Such frustrating events resonate with Ghanaians daily; thus, there is a need for a complete shift in the mindset of citizens from anti-information to pro-information.
Awareness and education on the advantages of the RTI Law will empower citizens to demand accountability from public institutions, entrenching transparency and open governance.
It is worth noting that the Right to Information Commission’s core objective includes promoting the law through sensitisation and public education.
However, the promotion of the law seems like too daunting an assignment for a single entity to execute effectively. Therefore, it rests on all RTI officers and focal persons in all public institutions to rise to the occasion to sensitise and consequently complement the RTI Commission's efforts.
Hopefully, the civil society groups whose relentless advocacy facilitated the birth of this law will still advance the cause of this essential democratic arrangement.
The success of the RTI lies squarely with the citizenry. An empowered and enlightened citizenry will ultimately break the phobia of demanding accountability.
(The writer is the Right to Information Officer, Ghana Health Service E-mail: amazinfianko@gmail.com)

6,845 RTI applications and appeals pending with State Information Commission

New Indian Express: Kerala: Tuesday, 5 November 2024.

Introduced in 2005 to ensure transparency in governance, the Right to Information (RTI) Act is considered a powerful tool against corruption, empowering ordinary citizens to question those in power about their actions. While the increasing number of applications is becoming a major challenge for the bureaucracy, it seems the very intent of the law is being undermined when applications remain pending for so long.
According to data, as of August 9, a total of 6,845 RTI applications, including newly filed applications and appeals, are pending in the office of the State Information Commission (SIC). Over seven years, from 2018 to 2024, 1,641 applications remain unanswered, while 5,204 appeals are still pending with the SIC. Criticizing the commission for not fulfilling the purpose of the law, Satheesh P. B., director of the Nerkazhcha Association in Thrissur, said the delay in gathering and disseminating information benefits officers, particularly in incidents related to custodial deaths and police cases.

In an application filed by Satheesh to retrieve CCTV footage from a police station, the Information Commission has yet to make a final decision on the appeal. When asked about the number of appeals pending at the SIC after evidence collection and hearings, but before final orders were issued, it appears the commission does not keep such data.
In another RTI application filed by Idukki native Sharon Thomas, the Chief Information Commission rejected the appeal, citing the applicant’s failure to attend the sitting in Thiruvananthapuram on the scheduled day.
Sharon had sought information regarding the facilities provided in Kerala's prisons for religious studies and whether there was a ban on religious studies in jails. The department concerned has not yet replied to the two questions for which the appeal was filed.
“Isn’t it unfair to reject the RTI appeal just because the applicant, based in Idukki, didn’t attend the commission’s sitting in Thiruvananthapuram?” asked Satheesh. He also criticized the common practice in which the Chief Information Commission refrains from issuing orders on important topics, leaving the matter for their successor after retirement.

आरटीआई को लेकर जागरूकता की जरूरत, गोष्ठी में हुआ विमर्श.

BNT News: बस्ती: सोमवार, नवंबर 04, 2024. 

बाधा रहित सूचना के प्रवाह तथा पत्रकारिता के लिए सूचना का अधिकार की उपयोगिता एवं अधिनियम को संरक्षित रखने को लेकर एक गोष्ठी का आयोजन किया गया, जिसमे सूचना आवेदकों तथा पत्रकार के बीच एक समन्वय स्थापित कर भ्रष्टाचार, पर्यावरण प्रदूषण, जल, वायु, मृदा प्रदूषण से लेकर मानवाधिकार हनन तक के संबंध में सूचनाओं को शासकीय कार्यालयों से बाहर निकालकर का आम जनमानस तक पहुंचाने हेतु सार्थक प्रयास करने पर जोर दिया गया।

पत्रकारिता जगत में आर टी आई का उपयोग न करने पर चिंता जताते हुए सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता, अधिवक्ता देवेश मणि त्रिपाठी ने कहा आज पत्रकारिता जगत में जिस प्रकार पर्यावरण प्रदूषण, घटते बन क्षेत्र, प्रदूषित नदियों व मृदा, शासकीय कार्यों में अनवरत बढ़ते भ्रष्टाचार, पुलिस प्रशासन द्वारा आम नागरिकों के साथ किए जा रहे अमानवीय कृत्यों से संबंधित पर्याप्त सूचनाओं के अभाव का मूल कारण आर टी आई की जानकारी का अभाव है। देवेश मणि त्रिपाठी ने कहा आज सबसे जरूरी है कि पत्रकारिता जगत से जुड़े प्रत्येक बैनर आर टी आई का प्रयोग करें तथा आर टी आई के क्षेत्र से जुड़े लोगों तथा पत्रकारिता क्षेत्र से जुड़े लोगों के बीच एक बेहतरीन समन्वय स्थापित करने के लिए एक डिजिटल प्लेटफॉर्म का होना जरूरी है

जो भी सूचनाएं आर टी आई के माध्यम से प्राप्त हो वह आसानी से पत्रकारों के पहुंच में हो जिससे जनहित में उन सूचनाओं का उपयोग हो सके। त्रिपाठी ने कहा कि आज पर्यावरण प्रदूषण एवं मानवाधिकार हनन जैसे महत्वपूर्ण विषयों पर सभी को मिलकर कार्य करने के संबंध में यथाशीघ्र एक विचार गोष्ठी करने हेतु अनुरोध किया तथा सरकार द्वारा सूचना का अधिकार को धीरे धीरे कमजोर किए जाने पर भी लोगो से विचार करने पर अनुरोध किया। देवेश मणि त्रिपाठी, अवधेश कुमार मिश्र, सुदृष्टि नारायण त्रिपाठी, कृष्ण कुमार उपाध्याय, उमेश कुमार ने अपने विचार व्यक्त किया। मुख्य रूप से भानु प्रकाश चतुर्वेदी, महेंद्र सिंह, इंद्र कुमार दुबे, राजेंद्र उपाध्याय, सर्वेश श्रीवास्तव, सुशील श्रीवास्तव, दिनेश पांडे आदि लोग उपस्थित थे।

जिला निबंधन कार्यालय RTI का बना रहा मखौल, फोटोकॉपी के लिए मांगे प्रति पेज 50 रुपये

Kashinews: सोमवार, नवंबर 04, 2024.

जिला निबंधन कार्यालय आरटीआई एक्ट की धज्जियां उड़ा रहा है. यहां आरटीआई के जवाब के लिए संचिका की कॉपी दो रुपये प्रति पेज के हिसाब से आवेदक को उपलब्ध कराई जाती है. वहीं रांची जिला निबंधन कार्यालय आवेदक से प्रति पेज 50 रुपये की मांग कर रहा है.

क्या है मामला ?

दरअसल आरटीआई एक्टिविस्ट अरुण कुमार ने 12 सितम्बर 2024 को जिला निबंधन कार्यालय रांची में आरटीआई लगा कर नगड़ी थाना अंतर्गत जतरुप्रजापति नामक व्यक्ति द्वारा 2020 से सितम्बर 2024 तक कुल कितने डीड की रजिस्ट्री हुई है , उसकी सूची तथा छाया प्रति की मांग की थी. साथ ही उन्होंने उन तमाम डीड की सूची मांगी थी जिसमें जतरू प्रजापति ने सीएनटी एक्ट का उल्लंघन कर जमीने खरीदी है. अरुण कुमार ने अपने आरटीआई में यह भी मांग की है कि उन तमाम जमीन की भी सूची उपलब्ध कराएं जो म्युटेशन के बगैर रजिस्ट्री हुई है.

आरटीआई के जवाब में जिला निबंधन कार्यालय ने अरुण कुमार को पत्र लिख कर बताया कि प्रतिवर्ष के डीड का मुआयना तथा तलाशी के लिए 100 रुपये और डीड की प्रतिलिपि के लिए 50 रुपये प्रति पेज जमा कराने होंगे.

आरटीआई एक्टिविस्ट अरुण कुमार ने बताया कि निबंधन कार्यालय द्वारा आरटीआई एक्ट का मखौल उड़ाया जा रहा है. जहाँ प्रति पेज दो रूपये के हिसाब से सूचना उपलब्ध करानी चाहिए. वहीं मुझे प्रति पेज पचास रुपये की मांग की जा रही है. मैंने जमीन से जुड़े भ्रष्टाचार और सीएनटी एक्ट में उल्लंघन के मामले को लेकर आरटीआई डाली है. जिसे मैं अब हाईकोर्ट में ले जा रहा हूँ. नगड़ी में जतरू प्रजापति द्वारा सैकड़ो जमीन की रजिस्ट्री सीएनटी नियमों का उल्लंघन कर किया गया है. इसमें निबंधन कार्यालय समेत अंचल कार्यालय की संलिप्तता है.

No evidence: BJP's Kirit Somaiya, son cleared in INS Vikrant fund misuse case.

India Today: Monday, November 04, 2024.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil Somaiya were accused of collecting public funds intended to convert the decommissioned warship INS Vikrant into a museum and misappropriating crores of rupees.

The Mumbai Police have filed a closure report in a case alleging the swindling of funds collected to save the warship INS Vikrant, giving a clean chit to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil Somaiya.

According to police sources, extensive investigations found no evidence of misappropriation.

Earlier in August, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police had filed a closure report, but the court rejected it, stating that sufficient investigations had not been conducted. Now, after the revised closure report (C summary report), the final acceptance is awaited.

advertisement

The complaint against the BJP leader and others alleged that between 2013 and 2014, Somaiya launched a campaign to raise public funds to save INS Vikrant, India’s first warship, which was set to be scrapped after being decommissioned.

With the aim of converting the warship into a museum, Somaiya, his son Neil, and others conducted a fundraising drive titled ‘Vikrant Wachwa’ (Save Vikrant in Marathi) and collected crores of rupees, the complaint filed by ex-serviceman Sipoy Baban Bhimrao Bhosale alleged.

The complaint stated that a document obtained under the Right to Information Act revealed the funds were not deposited with the Maharashtra Governor’s office. It claimed that Somaiya collected approximately Rs 57 crores from various areas across Mumbai and misused the funds.

The complaint was filed when the BJP was in opposition in Maharashtra, and Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister. However, in their closure report, the police stated that their investigation found no evidence of fund misuse by Somaiya and his son.

Punjab govt got more funds than Hry under PMAY: BJP leader.

Times of India: Chandigadh: Monday, November 04, 2024.

Punjab BJP vice-president Arvind Khanna on Sunday said Punjab had received greater financial support under the (PMAY) than the neighbouring Haryana. Khanna was responding to the allegations of biased treatment meted out to Punjab by the central govt. He said as per recent information received under the Right to Information Act shows that Punjab received over Rs 1,825 crore, while Haryana received Rs 1,673 crore, disproving the Punjab govt’s claims of bias toward their state by the central govt. Khanna emphasised that the Punjab govt led by chief minister Bhagwant Mann was engaging in unnecessary slander against the central govt to divert attention from its own shortcomings. 

The BJP leader highlighted that despite having an opposition govt in Punjab, PM Narendra Modi’s administration had shown respect for the state by allocating substantial funds. He urged CM Mann to focus on resolving Punjab’s urgent issues, including deteriorating law and order, drug problems affecting the youth, and economic mismanagement. Khanna also criticised the Mann govt for neglecting employee benefits such as Diwali bonus and alleged that the govt funds were being misused on foreign visits. He also called for accountability and action in Punjab’s governance.

Ensure compliance of proactive disclosure norms: CIC to Public Offices of J&K UT.

Daily Excelsior: Mohinder Verma: Jammu: Monday, November 04, 2024.

The Public Offices of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir should ensure strict compliance of proactive disclosure norms in order to achieve the cherished objective of the Right to Information Act. Moreover, voluntary disclosure of all information that ought to be displayed in the public domain should be the rule and public seeking information through RTI application should be an exception.

This has been stressed by Central Information Commission (CIC) while dealing with several Second Appeals filed against Public Authorities of J&K UT for not providing timely information under the transparency law.

“Voluntary disclosure of all information that ought to be displayed in the public domain should be the rule and members of public seeking information through RTI application should be an exception”, the Commission said while dealing with Second Appeal filed after denial of information about works executed under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and MGNREGA in Doda.

The Commission further said, “an open Government, which is the cherished objective of the RTI Act, can be realized only if all Public Offices comply with proactive disclosure norms. Section 4(2) of the RTI Act mandates every Public Authority to provide as much information suo-motu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications including the internet so that the public need not resort to the use of RTI Act”.

“Need for transparency is more in the case of appointment/recruitment process”, the Commission has stressed while directing the concerned PIO of the Rural Development Department of J&K to ensure that information related to details of CSC, detail of works under SBM and details of works under MGNREGA etc as permissible for disclosure under the RTI Act, 2005 is suo motu disclosed on website in the interest of public at large and for ensuring transparency and accountability.

Similarly, while dealing with the Second Appeal filed after denial of information by the Indian Red Cross Society, J&K, the Central Information Commission observed, “this Public Authority should ensure suo motu disclosure of maximum information relating to list of activity programs conducted; gross amount of donations received; expenditure related reports etc are published regularly on their website, in compliance of the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act in order to promote transparency and accountability in functioning of the Public Authority”.

While proactively disclosing the information, due caution should also be exercised to strictly adhere to the provisions of the Section 8 and 9 RTI Act and redact any information which falls under any of the exemption clauses by applying the severability clause as laid down under Section 10 of the RTI Act, the CIC stressed.

Likewise, the transparency watchdog of the country has directed the Power Development Department of J&K to take necessary steps for suo motu disclosure of maximum information on website about the number of transformers installed in compliance of the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act.

“The respondent is duty bound by virtue of the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act to publish the information on its website so that the public need minimum resort to the use of the RTI Act to obtain the information”, the CIC further stressed.

Meanwhile, the Central Information Commission, while disposing of Second Appeal whereby information was sought from the J&K Waqf Board but was not furnished well in time, has taken grave exception to the factum of delay caused by the CPIO in providing any reply to the appellant and also no substantial explanation for such delay has been tendered by the CPIO.

“Such casual conduct of the CPIO causes unwarranted obstruction to the appellant’s right to information and is in grave violation to the provisions of RTI Act. The CPIO is directed to file a written submission detailing the reason for not providing any reply within the time bound manner as per the RTI Act provisions”, the CIC said.

“The written explanation should reach the Commission within 15 days from the date of receipt of the order”, read the order passed in the Second Appeal.

Rural Development Department keen to rationalise pay for its consultants.

Indian Express: Shamlal Yadav: New Delhi: Sunday, November 03, 2024.

Over 250 hired from external agencies including the Big 4.

THE DEPARTMENT of Rural Development, which has taken over 250 consultants on contract, has set up a committee to suggest “measures for rationalisation” of emoluments being paid to them. The committee, chaired by Additional Secretary T K Anil Kumar is expected to submit its report in November, sources told The Indian Express.

It will “examine the present emoluments being paid to consultants in different program divisions and suggest measures for rationalisation of such emoluments for the department”, the sources said.

The committee was set up following a report submitted by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) last year to the Department of Rural Development. An academician involved in the IIPA said, “We have suggested following certain SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) while hiring consultants and that the hiring should be in compliance with the GFR (General Financial Rule).”

T K Anil Kumar did not respond to queries sent by The Indian Express. Sources said the committee under him comprises eight other members all are officials of the department or organisations under it.

The 250-plus consultants contracted by the department work under its various schemes such as MNREGA, Mission Antyodaya, National Social Assistance Program, National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, Rural Housing, National Rural Livelihood Mission, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, and others. Many of these 250-plus come from external agencies including the Big Four consulting firms.

RTI empowered citizens to expose corruption, lapses: Kerala State Information Commissioner.

Times of India: N.K. Agrawal: Ramgardh:  Sunday, November 03, 2024.

RTI activist Binu Kumar Mahto of Raipura village under the Gola block, who shot to fame for paying Rs 1.49 lakh to the block development office (BDO) under the RTI Act 2005 to procure information, is going to contest the assembly polls from the Ramgarh constituency on a BSP ticket. Ramgarh will go to polls in Phase 2 on November 20. Thirty-three-year-old Mahto will join other key contenders in the constituency, including outgoing MLA Sunita Choudhary of Ajsu-P, former Congress MLA Mamta Devi and newbie Paneshwar Mahto of the newly formed Jharkhand Krantikari Loktantra Morcha (JKLM). Mahto gained recognition for his unprecedented RTI activism when he paid Rs 1.49 lakh to obtain 74,500 pages of information from the Gola BDO.

The information pertained to projects executed under the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions between 2020 and 2023. The case drew attention when Mahto declined to collect the documents, stored in five sacks at the block office, insisting on postal delivery as per the RTI Act 2005 provisions. The authorities eventually delivered the certified documents to his residence in Raipura village.

“I’ve been analysing these 74,500 pages of information for the past year,” Mahto said, adding, “Cross-verifying this data with ground reality across various panchayats of the Gola block could take more than five years.” Mahto filed the RTI with the public information officer-cum-BDO on May 6, 2023. Mahto said he went to the block office on May 24, 2023, to find out the status of his application. The then BDO-cum-public information officer, Santosh Kumar, informed him in an official letter the same day that Mahto had to pay Rs 1.49 lakh, at the rate of Rs 2 per photocopy, and agreed to provide the information within 25 days of depositing the money. After initial reluctance, Mahto paid the amount on June 7, 2023, after which the BDO asked him to collect the pages stored in sacks from the office. 

Mahto, however, refused, saying under the RTE, the information should be delivered to him through the post office. With no option left, the BDO dropped off the sacks in an SUV at Mahto’s house on July 11, 2023. The incident turned into a spectacle and was watched by scores of villagers and videographed by block officials, who made Mahto sign a receipt for the photocopies. Later, Mahto had said he wanted a refund, saying the information provided was irrelevant to what he had sought under the RTI Act and was delayed by more than two months. The activist had also claimed that he was forced to sign the receipt and that a rough count put the number of pages at only about 48,000. “I will move court if the block office refuses to return my money,” Mahto had said then. 

अकेले मध्यप्रदेश में 91 लाख 'जनधन' खाते निष्क्रिय ! सरकार को करना होगा विचार.

मध्य प्रदेश न्यूज : अनुराग द्वारी: शनिवार, नवंबर 02, 2024.

देश में बड़ी आबादी को बैंक से जोड़ने की मुहिम में केन्द्र की मोदी सरकार ने बेहद बड़े पैमाने पर जनधन खाते खोले. उद्देश्य साफ था- लोगों को बैकिंग सिस्टम से जोड़ना ताकि जो लोग इससे वंचित रह गए हैं वो भी अपनी बचत को बढ़ा सकें. पर इतने साल बाद चिंता की बात ये है कि देशभर में करोड़ों जनधन खाते ऐसे हो गए हैं जो अब निष्क्रिय हैं. ये खुलासा हुआ है RTI में।

देश में बड़ी आबादी के पास अपना बैंक खाता हो, जिससे उनका वित्तीय लेन-देन आसान हो सके, इस वादे के साथ शुरू की गई प्रधानमंत्री जनधन योजना (PMJDY) के तहत देशभर में करोड़ों खातों में ₹2.33 लाख करोड़ से अधिक की राशि जमा है. हालांकि, इन प्रभावित करने वाले आंकड़ों के बावजूद अब हालात अलग हैं. ताजा हालत ये है कि देश में मौजूद हर पांचवा जनधन खाता निष्क्रिय है. ये जानकारी सूचना के अधिकार के तहत जुटाई जानकारी से मिली है. RTI से मिले दस्तावेज ये भी बताते हैं कि 11 करोड़ से अधिक खाते निष्क्रिय श्रेणी में आते हैं. इसके साथ ही जीरो बैलेंस वाले खातों की संख्या भी करोड़ों में पहुंच गई है.

ये जानकारी नीमच के RTI कार्यकर्ता चंद्रशेखर गौड़ ने सूचना के अधिकारी के तहत जुटाई है. जिसके मुताबिक, उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार और मध्य प्रदेश में निष्क्रिय और जीरो बैलेंस वाले खातों की संख्या सबसे अधिक है. अकेले उत्तर प्रदेश में 9.57 करोड़ से अधिक जनधन खाते हैं, जिनमें से 2.31 करोड़ खाते निष्क्रिय हैं और 76.12 लाख खातों में बकाया राशि शून्य है. बिहार में कुल 6.11 करोड़ खातों में से 1.18 करोड़ खाते निष्क्रिय हैं और 41 लाख से अधिक खातों में जीरो बैलेंस है. वहीं, मध्य प्रदेश में योजना के तहत 4.41 करोड़ खाते हैं, जिनमें 91.53 लाख निष्क्रिय खाते और 36.91 लाख जीरो बैंलेंस वाले खाते शामिल हैं.

अहम ये है कि ज्यादातर निष्क्रिय खाते ग्रामीण इलाकों में है. इससे इन इलाकों में बचत की मुहिम सवालों के घेरे में आ जाती है. योजना का उद्देश्य भी कम आय वाले अधिक से अधिक लोगों में बचत की आदत डालना था, लेकिन शून्य शेष खातों की अधिक संख्या खाता धारकों के बीच वित्तीय जागरूकता की कमी को दर्शाता है.

रुपे कार्ड से जुड़े बीमा दावों की कम संख्या

जनधन योजना का एक विशेष पहलू रुपे कार्ड के साथ जुड़ा दुर्घटना बीमा है, परंतु दावों का निपटान दर काफी कम है. वित्तीय वर्ष 2022-23 में कुल 560 दावे दर्ज किए गए, जिनमें से 462 दावे निपटाए गए और कुल ₹6.58 करोड़ की राशि का भुगतान किया गया.2023-24 में 431 दावे दर्ज हुए, जिनमें से 364 निपटाए गए और ₹5.36 करोड़ की राशि जारी की गई. मौजूदा वित्तीय वर्ष में 4 अक्टूबर 2024 तक 49 दावे दर्ज हुए, जिनमें से 44 का निपटान हुआ और कुल ₹69 लाख का भुगतान किया गया है. वैसे इसमें कोई शक नहीं कि PMJDY ने बिना किसी सवाल ग्रामीण और असंबद्ध जनता तक बैंकिंग सेवाओं की पहुंच को बढ़ाया है, परंतु बड़ी संख्या में निष्क्रिय और जीरो बैलेंस खाते, विशेष रूप से ग्रामीण आबादी वाले राज्यों में, वित्तीय शिक्षा, बेहतर खाता प्रबंधन और सरल बीमा दावा प्रक्रिया की आवश्यकता को बताते हैं.

राजधानी के पानी में जहर घोल रहा पराला प्लांट से छोड़ा जा रहा वेस्ट.

शिमला ब्यूरो: हर्षित शर्मा: शनिवार, नवंबर 02, 2024।

प्लांट से छोड़े बेकार पदार्थ मिले 40 गुना ज्यादा प्रदूषक, गिरि पेयजल परियोजना के पानी को कर रहा दूषित

शहर के लिए यहां से होती है पानी की आपूर्ति, सैंपल फेल होने के बावजूद नहीं रोकी जा रही आपूर्ति

हिमाचल प्रदेश बागवानी उत्पाद विपणन प्रसंस्करण निगम (एचपीएमसी) के पराला फ्रूट प्रोसेसिंग प्लांट से निकलने वाला वेस्ट (कचरा) आम लोगों के स्वास्थ्य पर भारी पड़ता नजर आ रहा है। इस प्लांट का निर्माण 100.5 करोड़ से हुआ है।

प्लांट से निकलने वाला वेस्ट गिरि पेयजल परियोजना में मिल रहा है। गिरि से पानी की आपूर्ति शिमला शहर के लिए होती है। करोड़ों की लागत से पराला में बने प्लांट में शहर को पेयजल आपूर्ति करने वाली गिरि नदी में तय मापदंडों से 40 गुना ज्यादा दूषित पानी छोड़ा है। इसका खुलासा सूचना का अधिकार अधिनियम 2005 के जरिये प्राप्त प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड की रिपोर्ट में हुआ है। तीन अक्तूबर को पेयजल परियोजना में पराला प्लांट से निकले तरल पदार्थ के पहुंचने से पेयजल आपूर्ति बंद कर दी थी।

प्लांट 10 दिन तक बंद रहा था, उसके बाद इसे फिर शुरू कर दिया। प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के मुताबिक प्लांट से छोड़े जा रहे पानी के सैंपल अगस्त से अभी तक एक बार भी पास नहीं हुए हैं। बोर्ड के क्षेत्रीय अधिकारी की नियमित जांच के बाद बनाई रिपोर्ट से पता चला है कि सेब को धोने के बाद निकले पानी को बिना साफ किए खुली नालियों में फेंका जा रहा है। इसके अलावा प्लांट के संचालन के दौरान ईटीपी लॉगबुक भी नहीं बनाई है जिसमें जल प्रवाह, परिचालन समय, पीएच स्तर, कीचड़ की मात्रा, रासायनिक खपत, उपचारित पानी की मात्रा, बिजली मीटर रीडिंग, ऑपरेटर के हस्ताक्षर और नोट्स की जानकारी होती है। इसके अतिरिक्त उत्पादन क्षेत्र से एक फ्लेक्सिबल पाइप सीधे नाले में गंदा पानी बहाते हुए मिला हैै। यह दूषित पानी गिरि खड्ड के नजदीकी नाले में बहाया जा रहा था जिससे पानी में झाग बन रहा था। इसकी गुणवत्ता में गिरावट आई है।

एचपीएमसी के प्रबंध निदेशक सुदेश कुमार मोक्टा ने बताया कि प्लांट के संचालन को सुधारा है। प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के सैंपलों के बारे में उन्हें काई जानकारी नहीं है। एसजेपीएनएल (शिमला जल प्रबंध निगम लिमिटेड) के एजीएम प्रेम प्रकाश शर्मा ने बताया कि प्लांट के निर्माण के दौरान भी प्लांट से मलबा गिरि के किनारे फेंका था जिसकी शिकायत प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के अधिकारियों को की थी।

पेयजल परियोजना में संक्रमण का खतरा

गिरि पेयजल परियोजना से शिमला शहर को रोजाना 18 एमएलडी पानी मिलता है। गिरि खड्ड को पहले से ही राष्ट्रीय हरित अधिकरण (एनजीटी) ने प्रदूषित नदियों की सूची में शामिल कर रखा है। अब इतने दूषित पानी को बहाने से गिरि का पानी और प्रदूषित होगा। यही पानी शिमला पहुंचता है और इसके सेवन से बीमारियां फैलने का खतरा है।

सैंपल रिपोर्ट में मिले हैं प्रदूषक

प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड की ताजा सैंपल रिपोर्ट में प्लांट से छोड़े जा रहे पानी में बायोलॉजिकल ऑक्सीजन डिमांड 1200 मिलीग्राम प्रति लीटर है जो 30 मिलीग्राम से कम होनी चाहिए थी। पानी में केमिकल ऑक्सीजन डिमांड 3060 के स्तर पर है जो 250 से कम होनी चाहिए। प्लांट से छोड़ जा रहे पानी में सस्पेंडिड सॉलिड 910 के स्तर पर है जो 100 से कम होना चाहिए। तय मापदंडों से कहीं गुना ज्यादा प्रदूषकों से भरा पानी गिरी में छोड़ा जा रहा है।

सैंपल फेल, फिर भी शुरू कर दिया संचालन

बोर्ड ने प्लांट से पिछले साल सितंबर में सैंपल लिए थे लेकिन वह भी फेल थे। इसके बाद प्रदेश प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड ने सरकार को एनजीटी के मानकों के तहत पराला प्लांट पर जुर्माना लगाने की सिफारिश की थी। लेकिन प्लांट पर जुर्माने की जगह जनवरी में इसका उद्घाटन कर दिया था। जून से प्लांट में सेब से जूस और वाइन बनाने का कार्य शुरू हुआ था। एक साल से इसके सैंपल फेल हो रहे हैं और अभी तक एक लाख जुर्माना लगाया जा चुका है।

गंदे पानी से होते हैं कई रोग : डॉ. शीतल

पंडित जवाहर लाल नेहरू राजकीय मेडिकल कॉलेज चंबा की डाॅ. शीतल कश्यप ने बताया कि यदि लोग दूषित पानी पीते हैं तो उन्हें हैजा, पेचिश, दस्त जैसे जल-जनित रोग हो सकते हैं। लंबे समय तक सेवन करने पर मृत्यु भी हो सकती है। दूषित पानी एक धीमा जहर साबित हो सकता है। हानिकारक रसायन मानव शरीर में बढ़ सकते हैं और किडनी रोग, जन्म दोष और हृदय रोग हो सकते हैं। यदि यह पानी खेतों में छिड़का जाता है, तो इससे फसलों में प्रदूषण हो सकता है।

One rupee coin costs more than its value to produce.

Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Saturday, November 02, 2024.

However, others like the ₹2, ₹5 and ₹10 coins have a cheaper production cost which doesn't exceed their denominated value. 

Producing the humble one-rupee coin costs the Indian government more than its face value. According to a 2018 report from India Today, which cited government responses to an RTI request, the coin, which has been in circulation since 1992, costs ₹1.11 to mint, surpassing its own value.

Recently, Google has rolled out an ad campaign called "Googlies on Google," using the hashtag #DhoondogeTohJaanoge. The campaign invites users to dive into general knowledge by posing intriguing questions. When users search for the production cost of a one-rupee coin, they were greeted with a cheerful message: “Congrats! You’ve unlocked your first Googly!” This initiative aims to educate while entertaining, engaging users in a fun-filled quest for knowledge.

Made of stainless steel, the one-rupee coin measures 21.93 mm in diameter, 1.45 mm in thickness, and weighs 3.76 grams. Other coin denominations, however, cost slightly less to produce, with the ₹2 coin costing ₹1.28, the ₹5 coin ₹3.69, and the ₹10 coin ₹5.54 to mint.

All these coins are minted by the Indian Government Mint (IGM) in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The Hyderabad Mint disclosed these production costs, but the Mumbai Mint refrained, citing confidentiality under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, 2005.

The path to righteous struggle - A book review.

Telegraph India: Argha Kr Banerjee: Saturday, November 02, 2024.

Aruna Roy affirms that 'The Right to Information Act did not come out of an abstract discussion on information'. 

In this book, readers get an insight into the complex range of circumstances that eventually led to the Right to Information Act being passed in 2005. Aruna Roy affirms that “The Right to Information Act did not come out of an abstract discussion on information.” She further explores the various challenges in the chapter, “Work as Politics of Inequality and Justice in Practice”, in which she observes: “The demand for transparency and a law for the people’s right to see government records was shaped by simple incidents — wage workers cheated of their wage and unable to see muster rolls, villagers facing dysfunctional development projects, corruption, graft and misuse of power.” 

In 1994, a decision to examine the records of all public works led to shock waves within the community: “The Jansunwai duly took place and those present demanded transparency of all records, accountability of the corrupt, repayment of development funds siphoned off and a social (public) audit. The hearing established that transparency was vital for probity in public life and for development.”

The book chronicles the struggles undertaken by Roy as a social activist. The list of her engagements in social activism is indeed awe-inspiring and includes the establishment of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (1990); mobilisation at the grassroot level in Tilonia, a village in Rajasthan, through the Barefoot College (Social Work Research Centre); her spirited struggle for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act; the Right to Food and the indefatigable fight for the implementation of non-contributory pension for unorganised sector employees and so on.

Readers also get a glimpse of her disenchantment with her brief stint with the Indian Administrative Service: “My years in the system (1968-75) taught me to face a hitherto unknown reality behind the glamour of ‘power’ and the mechanisms, such as the interface with corruption and its insidious ways...” Roy derides the then accepted norm of earning “two incomes” for most bureaucrats — “one legitimate and the other illegitimate”. In the fourth chapter, she is even more scathing in her attack against the thriving corrupt system: “Questions were asked: ‘Upar ka kitna, niche se kitna hai?” (What is your salary and how much do you earn under the table?)

Roy’s memoir is a recipe for inspiration for budding activists. Through her own life story, she meticulously charts the various challenges that activists have to endure over a prolonged period of time while ensuring justice for the downtrodden, marginalised and deprived.