Times of India: New Delhi: Friday, December 08, 2017.
Two actions
by the Union government in recent days do more to paint it in a bad light than
all the adverse criticism stemming from political opposition, activists, and
opinion writers. I am referring to the order allowing National Green Tribunal
to function with single-member benches and Union Minister Jitender Singh’s comment
that people who file applications under the Right to Information Act must have
something to do in connection with it.
The first
order is appalling because the NGT Act lays down that each bench must have
atleast two members a judicial member and an expert member. More importantly,
the order lends credence to allegations that NGT is being deliberately crippled
by not filling vacancies that are cropping up as expert and judicial members
retire. According to one report the three courts in its principal Bench in
Delhi and four zonal Benches in the east, west, central and south will be
reduced to functioning with less than one-third of its sanctioned strength of
20.
The NGT has
no doubt been a stumbling block for the government in expediting development
projects, often raising inconvenient questions on pollution-related matters.
This places the NGT in a tough spot it can’t be impairing governance but
can’t afford to ignore environmental concerns which can no longer be neglected.
The NGT has also occasionally misfired through judicial activism and
sensationalist oral observations. But the order allowing single member benches
to hear matters will not improve quality or help NGT function better.
Judicial
members cannot claim to be experts in environment. Not appointing expert
members portrays the government as weak and looking for short cuts.
Environmentalists are important and their recommendations may inflate costs and
delay projects but we can no longer ignore long term costs and benefits of
environmental preservation.
Coming to
Jitender Singh, a minister who has distinguished himself in the art of making
provocative comments, he would do well to steer clear of the RTI Act. Right to
Information is not a dole to a citizen but is an empowering tool forcing governments
to give information that it would prefer to keep under wraps. The minister
claims that “most of our information is already available on public domain,
then why file an RTI”. However, it is no secret that what is shared is the
innocuous information.
Just look at
some RTIs in recent days that have changed our perception of public policies.
It was a PTI journalist’s RTI application that revealed a sharp dip in Delhi
metro ridership in October after a fare hike. Again The Wire has put out an RTI
petition revealing irregularities in EVM manufacturing by two public sector
undertakings and their sourcing by Election Commission. Many of the
irregularities in the UPA government were also exposed by RTI applications. A
number of RTI activists have paid with their lives.
The powerful
will continue to hinder the flow of damning information to citizens. If
bureaucrats sit to decide who is entitled to information it represents the
defeat of the RTI Act. The central and state governments will do well to
appoint eminent citizens rather than bureaucrats to Information Commissions.
Vacancies need to be filled fast as soon as information commissioners retire.
The RTI Act must be nourished and encouraged. We elect governments to do their
job and so our trust is both implicit and explicit but the RTI Act and
regulatory institutions help us keep checks on governments and government
servants.
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