Daily
Pioneer: Bhubaneswar: Wednesday, 16 September 2015.
The benefits
of Right to Information (RTI) Act are yet to trickle down to the rural
hinterlands. The need of the hour is to take the process forward through the
literate and semi-literate youths in the rural areas, more particularly the
tribal villages of Odisha.
Several NGO
and RTI activists opined this during the formation of District RTI forum in
Rayagada.
“In our
primary school at Mandibsi village of Kashipur block, when one teacher got
retired, I went to BDO to ask for appointment of another teacher immediately so
that the other teacher who is burdened with several administrative work shares
her time in teaching the tribal students. The BDO told that he did not have
such power to appoint. I gave an application to the Collector during a
grievance day. The Collector directed me to the DEO office. When I reached the
DEO’s office and suggested a suitable teacher’s name for appointment, I was
shouted at and told that the teacher I was suggesting for had bribed me heavily
and hence that teacher had to be taken to task. I was shocked, ashamed and had
to leave the office. If a conscious tribal woman like me runs from pillar to
post for a societal cause and community right gets harassed, what is the use of
the RTI Act,” lamented Sumoni Jhodia, a known tribal woman leader and Jamnalal
Bajaj Award winner from Kashipur.
She also
questioned the faulty policies of the Government like excluding even BPL
families from the new PDS system, no access of Jhodia tribal children in
schools due to their non-tribal status accorded to them by the Government, etc.
According to
Chitta Champati Ray, a noted social activist of the district, despite the
pro-people aspects of the Act, the percolation effect at the grassroots does
not show a good trend. The Act is hardly used for the entitlements of several
rights like NREGA, FRA and other social security schemes for the poor. Somebody
sometimes works for the poor. The poor themselves have to be empowered and help
themselves to gainfully use this pro-people Act, said Ray.
“When one
uses this instrument to expose the corruption of the authorities in the
delivery mechanism, he is termed as a miscreant, self-styled social activist,
extortionist, etc. Nevertheless, this is the only Act which is feared by the
Government servants. The activists need to be more and more information hungry
and strategic to face these derogatory remarks. After getting the information,
the activist needs to initiate a follow-up action and not back out till a
logical conclusion is arrived at. We must repeatedly hammer at the Government
offices to have their voluntary disclosure at place,” , said a prominent RTI
activist Rabindra Patakhandala.
Zilla
Parishad Chairperson Sujata Mandingi also opined that in spite of several
provisions in the Act, violations have been made by none other than the
implementers of the same Act. Several training and orientations are conducted
for the officials; but the impact is very less. “If the rules and regulations
meant for the schemes like ICDS, primary education, etc are followed sincerely
there is no need to use the Act. The community organisations like Matru Mangal
Committee and School Management Development Committee, etc have to be more and
more pro-active to check the misutillisation,” said Mandingi.
Sarvodayee
worker Jayaram Jena presided over the workshop where PRI leaders,
intellectuals, social activists, academicians, lawyers etc participated. Atul
Nayak facilitated the programme. Bichitra Biswal, Dwitichandra Sahoo and
Dambarudhara Pattanik spoke. Srinivash Das gave vote of thanks.
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