Dear Friends,
We extend our heart-felt gratitude to all of you who have accepted our invitation to come over here to enrich today's deliberations by way of putting in your valuable wisdom and experience, that you might have gathered while working in different fields in the past.
Some friends were curious to know, why was Basundhara interested to organize this Consultation on Right to Information? I would like to say here that since its inception in the year 1985, 'Basundhara' has been working in its humble way for the most disadvantaged and neglected sections of society, such as orphan and abandoned children, destitute women, unwed mothers, helpless senior citizens, handicapped people and mentally retarded children, run-away adolescents, girls and women victims of family and conjugal violence, the impoverished slum dwellers, Dalits including Scheduled Caste and Tribes, Minorities and the people affected in natural calamities like last Super Cyclone and Super Floods. While working for them we aimed at empowerment of these people too. In course of our work we interacted with various agencies of Government and public authorities at both Central and State level, such as Ministries and Departments, Courts and Tribunals, Legislative Bodies, Police and Investigative Organisations, Technical and Health Organisations and the like. Moreover, we got the privilege of working with some eminent non-Government Organisations based at home and abroad.
You shall agree with us that everywhere in our country, the common man is entrapped in the maze of out-moded and obscurantist legal and administrative rules and procedures existing since colonial days. The situation is such that there is little chance for him to get even a simple reply from a Government office, let alone timely justice from the court or defence of his constitutional rights. So the moment calls for a radical restructuring of the legal and administrative machinery of the State in keeping with true spirit of democracy.
An important aspect of the much-talked about governance reform is how to bring about transparency in the conduct of the functionaries of the chief organs of the State i.e. legislative, executive and judiciary before the people. Specifically it means, a common man has the right to know, what the 'public servants' deployed at the expense of the public exchequer are doing or not doing for them
Both the Central and State Governments are now committed to enacting Right to Information as a part of the agenda for developing an open, accountable and responsive system of governance. As a part of this effort, a Central Bill called Freedom of Information Bill 2000 was tabled in Parliament, followed by the passing of Right to Information Act in States like Tamil Nadu ( 1887), Goa (1997), Karnataka (2000), Maharashtra (2000), Rajasthan ( 2000) and Delhi (2001). In Madhya Pradesh and Utter Pradesh it is being implemented through administrative orders.
As you might know, the Government of Orissa in the Department of Information and Public Relations brought out a Working Paper on Draft Bill on Orissa Right to Information Act 2002, the topic of to-day's Consultation sometime back.
In such a situation, every citizen need to scrutinize minutely the provisions of the Draft Bill and suggest to Government the changes necessary in its text, so that the intended Act on Right to Information becomes a truly citizen-friendly legislation.
We in Basundhara think that Right to Information is an important human right and a key to other fundamental human rights. But as irony would have it, even after 55 years of Independence and 52 years of the proclamation of the Constitution, we are still searching for this key. It is also a widely accepted truth that both the country and States of India are passing through a period of crises as reflected in the growing state of indebtedness, financial scarcity, glaring failure of various schemes, political instability, and increasing disenchantment of people with pillars of administration. Coupled with this disconcerting scenario is the growing pace of globalisation impacting our society and the pressure of international organizations on our country to further open up. In such a compelling situation, our Government has no other go than pushing forward the Right to Information legislation and other components of transparency agenda. Be that as it may, the people of our State need to keep on their toes, so that the proposed reforms of governance including the Right to Information don't get derailed from their declared path, as was the case with multifarious reform measures in the past.
We in Basundhara think that the proposed Right to Information legislation need to pass through a people's debate, and to-day's Consultation is a part of this initiative. The results and recommendations of this Consultation shall be forwarded to the Government, which we hope, shall accord due weightage to them while further refining the Draft Bill.
We as the host of present Consultation don't propose anything definite on the change in the Draft Bill and would like to leave this all-important job to you all.
Before concluding I would like to say that the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution with Justice Venkatchaliah as its Chairman, that was set up amidst furious controversies in April 2000 has submitted their 1800 page Report to Government of India on 31st March 2002. The salient excerpts from the Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution that concern right to information shall be reproduced before you, which you may find useful in course of to-day's deliberations.