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VERY IMPORTANT LINKS :
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- Association for India's Development (AID) is putting in exhaustive efforts in collaboration with organizations like Parivartan in making sure we SAVE RTI. Please stop by the following link for all the information. http://rti.aidindia.org/
- PARIVARTAN : Fighting Corruption
- A detailed early paper by Aruna Roy on How the Grassroots RTI Struggle Emerged (A must-read!!)
- Samar Magazine Feature: A history of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan
- Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI): Right to Information as a Fundamental Human Right
- The Government of India RTI Website
- RTI Act 2005, India (PDF document ~ 380kb)
- NDTV: Frequently Asked Questions about RTI Act 2005
- RTI Blogsites: http://indiarti.blogspot.com, http://right2information.wordpress.com
- NDTV Compiled RTI Stories - (including Success Stories of RTI Implementation)
- Time of India site : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/specialcoverage/1823135.cms
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September 26, 2006:
*Parivartan agitates for the Right to Information -- GoodnewsIndia Article
July 24, 2006:
* Do you all complain constantly about the corruption in the Government systems?
* Do you all wanted to do something to move the Babus of this country to make it corrupt free
* Did you all wanted to somehow someday move the elephant called government and increase its efficiency?
* Did you all wanted India to be a vibrant and energetic democracy?
* Do you want to behave like a concerned citizen of this country wanting to take this country forward in an equitous way and be part of the real development of this country?
* Are some of you getting excited looking at the NDTV's 'Drive against Bribe Campaign"?
If the answer from you to any or all or some of the questions is "yes" then it is time to shed your passivity and act and that too act really fast because the babus and the politicians are faster than any of you can think of to curtail a landmark act namely the Right to Information Act. This was brought into force after much fanfare and dubbed as the crown of the UPA grovernment. But within 6 months of its effective use by the general public to make the public systems answerable to some of their unconstitutional actions, the government has made a stunning move to curtail the provisions of the Act to protect the Babus.
WANT TO ACT ON THIS WITHOUT BEING INDIFFERENT?
1. Simplest that can be done is to sign the many online Petitions that are there. One of them is http://www.petitiononline.com/save_rti/petition.html. There are also many more on the web. It does not matter even if you signed up at 2 or more places
2. If you are wanting to do a little bit more. Then you can send the mails to the PMO, Ms. Sonia Gandhi. The formats and the email addresses are available at the link http://www.sakshitrust.org/petition-against-rti-amendments/petition-against-rti-amendments.html.
3. Send Telegrams / faxes to the PM with the simple words "DONT AMEND THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT" and put your name as a common citizen of this country
So hope some of us will shed the cobwebs around us and save our democracy and THE BEST THING IS YOU DONT NEED TO BE AN ACTIVIST TO DO THIS. IT IS ENOUGH IF YOU ARE A CONCERNED CITIZEN OF THIS COUNTRY / WORLD.
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July 24, 2006 :
ITS TIME TO ACT IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE ROOTS OF CORRUPTION ELIMINATED FROM INDIA.
URGENT Action Item: Please sign the petition and forward it to your friends, family, batch-mates from school/college urging them to sign and voice their opinions.
What is Right to Information (RTI)?
Right to Information (RTI) is implicitly a part of fundamental rights under Article 19(1) of the Constitution of India, which says that every citizen has freedom of speech and expression. As early as in 1976, the Supreme Court said in the case of Raj Narain vs State of UP that India is a democracy, where people are the masters. Therefore, the masters have a right to know how the governments, meant to serve them, are functioning.
Moreover, the right to information is at the core of the human rights system because it enables citizens to more meaningfully exercise their rights, assess when their rights are at risk and determine who is responsible for any violations ( CHRI website)
However no attempt was made by the governments to enact and implement a regime for accessing information till grassroots campaigns were launched by the civil society - most notably, the movement in the early 1990s in Rajasthan by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), demanding access to villages accounts and transparency in administration, brought RTI into national focus.
After years of campaigning, the national government yielded, passing this long-overdue landmark Act on 12th October, 2005. The RTI Act lays down the process in which information can be accessed from government sources.
So what is this recent hullabaloo?
The Indian Cabinet decided to approve an amendment to the RTI Act which will restrict access to "file-notings" under the RTI Law
But what exactly are FILE NOTINGS and Why are they IMPORTANT?
That sacred creature, the government file, usually has two halves: on the right side is the correspondence and materials. This could be someone's grievance, a project proposal, a tender, a concept for a policy, anything the government needs to consider. On the left is the closely held note sheet, which records how the proposition was examined. The advice given in the notings has to be strictly in accordance with laws, rules, norms, and orders. The concerned officer puts down views, advice and recommendations. The file then goes up the line to the decision-making authority. On the way the hierarchy adds more notes, putting their signatures against their views. With all advice in hand a justifiable decision must be made.
Cumulatively, the note sheet reflects the mind of government, bares the intention of an individual officer and whether his advice and consent were grounded on established rules. File notings, then, are X-rays of government functioning. They are proof of fair play and reason , or dishonesty, bias, and negligence. They are the shield that most honest bureaucrats wish they had and the sword that dishonest ones fear. It is only by allowing thorough public scrutiny of the evidence of how the government works at every level that corruption can be fought. File notings fall squarely within the definition of 'information' in the Act. The nature of file notings is inevitably that of advice/opinion, and these are explicitly covered. To twist the definition to exclude file notings would be to destroy the Act's legislative intent. Yet that is what is being sought. Despite clear enunciation that file notings fall within the Act, the Department of Personal and Training's website, says that "information means any material in any form including records, documents...but does not include file notings".
- Read the complete article "Information law: dead on arrival?" by Maja Daruwala, that first appeared in from the Indian Express, October 1, 2005. Maja Daruwala is Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
- Aruna Roy's Article (a must-read) in Indian Express: An Act Disabling an ACT
... At least two of the proposed amendments will permanently shield the bureaucracy from accountability, the disinfectant power of transparency and allow them to function in an arbitrary manner. They will also shield the corrupt and deal a body blow to the efforts of people to fight corruption and the arbitrary exercise of power. Both these amendments relate essentially to the process of decision-making. The first one is to make file notings a category of information that can be concealed. In one stroke the bureaucracy will have managed to disable the Right To Information Act as far as its own functioning is concerned. The second relates to barring access to cabinet notes even after the decision making process is complete — putting the decision-making process of cabinet decisions into a permanent black hole.
... The amendments will change the Act so that the decision can be revealed, the process of decision-making cannot. Barring file notings is not barring a kind of information — it is barring information itself. And this move is nothing short of subterfuge against the Act.
... It is not just the records of a ration shop, or the muster rolls on a work site that people across the country are asking for. It is also the policies that lead to foodgrain stocks being made available, or the manner in which tax-payers' money is being spent that matters. There are decisions being made related to health and medicines, water and power, agricultural policy and genetic engineering and governance itself, that have the potential to impact not just the lives of millions of people but even generations of Indians.
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June 25, 2006
Everyone has heard recently that Right To Information (RTI) Act has been passed by the Indian Government. This act is supposed to empower the common Indian citizen. But how? nobody knows? or may be only a few passionate indidividuals know. And no one has to time to invest to learn about. As we are best known for, Chalta Hai attitude. Absolutely frustrating scary middle class mentality. Anyways, here is some information on RTI...
Check out this fantastic website on Anti-Bribery. It contains lots of information on RTI, Anti-bribery, the RTI campaign thats gonna be happening from July 1, 2006 in different cities in India. This campaign is aimed at educating the citizens in how to use it.
* http://www.antibribery.org/
INTERESTING INFORMATION IN THIS CATEGORY
India Right To Information
If we really need to do something good for the country and our posterity, we better not worry about the fact "How does it matter if just I do".... The scare needs to be killed.
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