DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, October 13,
2016.
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.
Nimish Gami,
NGO worker
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.
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.
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