High cost of information
8 views
Skip to first unread message
Barun Mitra, New Delhi
Mar 20, 2011, 12:35:17 AM3/20/11
to Empowering India
India's perilous road to transparency
By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Sonbhadra
18 March 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12521105
Asking questions can cost your life in India - even if the right to
solicit information is protected by law.
Amar Nath Deo Pandey is luckier - in less than a week, he appears to
have escaped two attempts on his life in a nondescript town in India's
most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
More than five years after the introduction of a landmark law that
allows Indians to access information held by the government, the
questioners themselves are under attack.
In the last three years alone, nearly a dozen people who dared to ask
uncomfortable questions under the country's Right to Information law
have been killed, and scores of such information seekers have been
attacked across the country.
Awkward questions
The backlash is not surprising considering that the law is forcing a
seismic change in India's post-colonial officialdom, which swears by a
stifling "official secrets act" while denying information to citizens.
Mr Pandey, an energetic 55-year-old homeopath and social worker,
discovered the perils of asking awkward questions the hard way.
Last year a group of people in his native town of Robertsgunj in
Sonbhadra district filed freedom of information applications seeking
answers about suspected corruption in India's massive jobs-for-work
programme.
Jobs for work programme in India India's jobs-for-work programme has
been plagued by corruption
Some of the answers he and his co-workers received showed large-scale
government corruption.
Lists of eligible workers for the programme had been forged, inflated
payments had been made - bricks had been bought at 12 times the market
price - and village council finances had not been audited for four
years in a row.
Old roads had been shown in records as newly constructed ones, public
money had been spent to make roads which did not exist and more than
150 promised homes for the poor had failed to materialise.
Still, money was being pumped into the programme which guarantees 100
days of work a year for every household.
Even the village council officer, the information revealed, had forged
his high school and college transcripts to make himself eligible for
the job.
The revelations shook up the government and led to the suspension of
the village council officer nearly three months ago.
......
"We are very concerned. This is a worrisome trend. State governments
should protect people who ask sensitive questions," says central
information commissioner Satyananda Mishra.
He believes that governments should be more forthcoming with putting
more information in the public domain anyway, so people don't have to
file an application to get it.
"More transparency will mean that the information seekers will be less
harassed and become targets."
Please read the complete article here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12521105
This is the first of two features by Soutik Biswas on the dangers
facing people using the Right to Information law in India.
By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Sonbhadra
18 March 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12521105
Asking questions can cost your life in India - even if the right to
solicit information is protected by law.
Amar Nath Deo Pandey is luckier - in less than a week, he appears to
have escaped two attempts on his life in a nondescript town in India's
most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
More than five years after the introduction of a landmark law that
allows Indians to access information held by the government, the
questioners themselves are under attack.
In the last three years alone, nearly a dozen people who dared to ask
uncomfortable questions under the country's Right to Information law
have been killed, and scores of such information seekers have been
attacked across the country.
Awkward questions
The backlash is not surprising considering that the law is forcing a
seismic change in India's post-colonial officialdom, which swears by a
stifling "official secrets act" while denying information to citizens.
Mr Pandey, an energetic 55-year-old homeopath and social worker,
discovered the perils of asking awkward questions the hard way.
Last year a group of people in his native town of Robertsgunj in
Sonbhadra district filed freedom of information applications seeking
answers about suspected corruption in India's massive jobs-for-work
programme.
Jobs for work programme in India India's jobs-for-work programme has
been plagued by corruption
Some of the answers he and his co-workers received showed large-scale
government corruption.
Lists of eligible workers for the programme had been forged, inflated
payments had been made - bricks had been bought at 12 times the market
price - and village council finances had not been audited for four
years in a row.
Old roads had been shown in records as newly constructed ones, public
money had been spent to make roads which did not exist and more than
150 promised homes for the poor had failed to materialise.
Still, money was being pumped into the programme which guarantees 100
days of work a year for every household.
Even the village council officer, the information revealed, had forged
his high school and college transcripts to make himself eligible for
the job.
The revelations shook up the government and led to the suspension of
the village council officer nearly three months ago.
......
"We are very concerned. This is a worrisome trend. State governments
should protect people who ask sensitive questions," says central
information commissioner Satyananda Mishra.
He believes that governments should be more forthcoming with putting
more information in the public domain anyway, so people don't have to
file an application to get it.
"More transparency will mean that the information seekers will be less
harassed and become targets."
Please read the complete article here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12521105
This is the first of two features by Soutik Biswas on the dangers
facing people using the Right to Information law in India.
Sudhakaran
Mar 24, 2011, 4:25:02 AM3/24/11
to empowerin...@googlegroups.com, stop-corrupt...@googlegroups.com, OurGre...@yahoogroups.com, Barun Mitra Empowering India
Dear Barun...
So, I think, it may not be different for Lok
Pal too..
Those who file complaints with Lok pal face danger
life.... because the reigning caucus itself would not change.. and Lok pal
too would be just one of their proxies...
CVC was established to prevent corruption... it
could not do.. and a person facing corruption charges (because he had god
fathers in the political caucus, was made its chief recently...
And I think there is nothing wrong if a
similar appointment is expected in Lokpal too if and when it comes in
to existence.
So Sree. Anna Hazare would
get another opportunity to fast for another anti-corruption
authority/instituion/law ....
And our anticorruption activists (and their next generation too - if India stays as an political entity
till then) would be blessed with many more opportunities
to conduct more conferences and marches against corruption to exhibit their
resolve to eradicate corruption
Wishing them all merry time
Sudhakaran
> --
> Empowering India: Making democracy meaningful
> www.EmpoweringIndia.org
> ------------------------------------------------------
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "EmpoweringIndia" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> empowerin...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> empoweringindia...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.co.in/group/empoweringindiamail?hl=en-GB?hl=en-GB
> Empowering India: Making democracy meaningful
> www.EmpoweringIndia.org
> ------------------------------------------------------
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "EmpoweringIndia" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
> empowerin...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> empoweringindia...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.co.in/group/empoweringindiamail?hl=en-GB?hl=en-GB
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages