The Hindu: Thiruvananthapuram: Monday, December 25, 2017.
Anyone who
has tracked the evolution of the Right to Information (RTI) Act will be
familiar with the name of Nikhil Dey. One of the main players behind
rights-based laws such as the RTI, Right to Food, and the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Nikhil, who was in the city recently
to attend a workshop on increasing the efficacy of social welfare legislations,
spoke with R.K. Roshni on social audits, RTI Act, the accountability law and
the Modi government.
Social
audits in the country…
Social audits
emerged as an offshoot of the RTI. However, it has been a struggle to implement
them, as no one wants to give up power or be answerable to people. Social audit
will work only if it is independent of whoever is running a department. It
helps the common man confront petty centres of power. States such as Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana had introduced social audits years ago for MGNREGS. Now,
Meghalaya has become the first State to pass a law saying that all notified
departments should have social audits. In Meghalaya, 26 programmes will be
audited concurrently.
The RTI
Act today…
RTI activists
are unhappy as the Act should work much better. But we will not allow it to get
it diluted. Today, there are six to eight million applications a year, and
there are no signs of this stopping.
Twelve years
after it was enacted, the RTI is one of the most successful laws on governance.
Criticisms
about MGNREGS…
In Kerala,
for instance, to have women come out and say we will work for our development
is a big thing even if they are not as productive as they should be.
The fact that
the women are working, there is a dignity about it, and there is development at
the village level makes MGNREGS an attractive programme.
The lack of
productivity reflects the system’s incapacity. The alternative is a dole, like
in countries in the West.
MGNREGS needs
second and third generation thought.
By
guaranteeing more than 100 days of work, ensuring minimum wages, varying the
kind of works, and bringing in transparency and social audit, the programme can
take a quantum leap.
The push
for an accountability law...
Accountability
law incorporates social audit, Right to Hearing, proactive disclosure, public
service guarantees, and citizen charter among other things.
So, when a
person complains about water supply, they also need to know who is responsible
for what at the supervisory level.
Switching
accountability to the people is what the law is about. If a bureaucrat or
official fails to do their job, they should pay penalties, just as the wages of
a MGNREGS labourer who does not do their job are cut.
Transparency
under the Modi government...
It is not
good times for participatory governance under this government.
They have not
notified the Lokpal law or done anything about the whistle-blower protection or
the grievance redressal law. It is a challenging period. However, there is a
lot of space opening in many States.
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