Vijaysinh Parmar TNN
Ranavav (Porbandar): This motely town in Porbandar has been infested with gangwars, godmothers and hooligans for years. Ranavav has always been in news for the wrong reasons. But, quietly and diligently the local taluka development officer (TDO) officer, Vikeshkumar Upadhyay, wishes to change this here.
Upadhyay is empowering people with RTI — getting a message across residents in 30 villages that in a democracy they are in charge of the goings and not some pack of headstrong men. To start with, Upadhyay roped in an NGO and earmarked villages in Ranavav taluka where he has already started making every government office disclose a lot of information on blackboards. Upadhyay’s efforts are being recognised by the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) too.
“The first task is making government offices responsible to the people. This is done by making pro-active disclosures of all who work in the offices, their functions, their salaries, qualifications, stocks available of various goods or medicines, procurement costs of inventories and even a detailed list of beneficiaries of government schemes, BPL card holders and the benefits of holding an Antodaya card,” says Upadhyay.
Where there are no blackboards, sections of unused walls of old buildings and private houses are painted black for posting information.
He says, “A good democratic set up can only function properly if people know. These pro-active steps can help people participate in the decisionmaking process and in turn empower them and give them the confidence.”
Such is the meticulous planning for disclosure that Upadhyay is putting details of ration quotas of food grains in public distribution system (PDS) on the boards. In case of the health network, details of medicine stock, list of free treatment for below poverty line (BPL) card holders, qualification of doctors and nurses have been disclosed. In the panchayats, details of meetings held and agendas of gram sabhas will be disclosed shortly.
Upadhyay has made it compulsory that the attendance of government functionaries in villages is put on the board. “Everybody should know as to how long has the officer or a doctor been away from his place of work. Details of their phone numbers too would be put up on the board.”
Similarly, village schools will display information on the teachers, their qualifications, the number of children in each class and details of mid-day meal menu, the name of the cook, who prepares the food and the source of procurement of grains will also be declared everyday.
“ T h e s e disclosures are enlisted in the RTI Act. This process of disclosure would lead to less number of RTI applications being filed as most of the RTI applications seek only these basic
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