As a part of the campaign for Right to Information in Orissa, the District level Workshops were held at Anugul, Kendrapara and Keonjhar on 5th October, 4 November and 28 November 2001 respectively. In all these Workshops the consensus had emerged for organizing similar forums at Block level, G.P. level and village level to make the message of RTI reach to the common villagers for whom RTI is very much essential.

Sri Sanjib Paikray, Secretary, Centre for Developmental Activities, who attended the District level Workshop at Keonjhar felt inspired to take the initiative to organize a Block level Workshop in his locality Harichandanpur.

The Block level Workshop was held on 10th of December 2001, World Human Rights Day in the auditorium of DPEP ( Sikhya Sadhan Kendra) at Harichandanpur and attended by about 50 informed citizens hailing from different walks of life, such as farmers, elected representatives of Panchayati Raj bodies, lawyers, doctors, Government Officials, Mediamen, NGOs, Social Workers, and religious-cultural organizers. The Workshop was presided over by Sri Kalakar Das, retired Head Master of Harichandanpur High School, who not only conducted its proceedings but also summed up the consensus into a form of a Resolution that was passed unanimously. A backgrounder in Oriya was circulated to the participants for helping them focuss on the relevant themes in course of their deliberations.

Sri Sanjib Paikray, Convenor of the Workshop
Sri Paikray first of all welcomed the participants and resource persons and said that this Workshop aims at stimulating a debate around the proposal for Right to Information in Orissa among the conscious people at Block level, who in turn shall carry forward the debate further down to the Panchayat and village level.

Sri Manas Jena, a Social Activist:
Sri Jena who is coordinating the Right to Information Campaign at State level briefed the participants about the background of this countrywide movement. Particularly he referred to the RTI movement in Rajasthan, which was led by MKSS at grass-root level. The Rajasthan movement showed that the common people had high stakes in the RTI legislation. Orissa being a poor and backward State where majority of its population are Dalits, the legislation of an RTI is of utmost importance. A Central Bill is pending in Parliament for discussion since July 2000. The Chief Minister of Orissa on the occasion of Jay Prakash Jayanti on 11 October 2001 assured that Orissa should have a Right to Infonnation law for ensuring an open, transparent and responsive governance. This Block level Workshop at Harichandanpur being first of its kind in recent past shall pave the way for participation of Panchayatiraj Bodies and informed citizens in the debates around RTI, which in turn shall enrich the campaign and ultimately facilitate the formulation of a proper people friendly law for RTI in Orissa.

Sri Pratap Kumar Biswal, Ex-Sarpanch, Harichandanpur G.P. -
The proposal for an RTI law for Orissa is a welcome move which should have been taken much earlier. The people in the villages deprived as they are of access to official information regarding the development programmes need such a law most all. Today's Workshop should be considered as the inauguration of a process of people's empowerment at grass-root level in this rural and tribal area.

Sri Sachindra Mohan Prusty, Organiser of Gayatri Sangathan and RSS-
Sri Prusty dealt with harassment faced by the farmers in respect of getting the subsidized price against the paddy they sell to the Regulatory Marketing Committee. The RMC should put up a hoarding in the market place displaying the price of paddy and should as well ensure giving of proper receipt against the sale of paddy by the farmers. But as a matter of practice the farmers are compelled to sell their paddy stocks at a much lower price, that is at the rate of Rs 330 only per quintal, where as the announced subsidized price is Rs 550 per quintal. Moreover, no receipt is provided to the farmers against the paddy they sell. The Regulatory Marketing Committee consists of members like Collector and M.P. but are unable to enforce the proper sale and purchase of paddy as for the norms announced through Radio. The Regulatory Marketing Committee collects about Rs 30 to 40 thousand per month from the public but fails to ensure fulfillment of the objectives of the market. The movement for Right to Information should take into account the farmers' Right to Information from the Regulatory Marketing Committee.

Sri Surath Chandra Sahoo, Member, Panchayat Samiti:
Continuing the discussion on the subsidized price for fanners, Sri Sahoo observed that the farmers can sell their paddy either to the rice mill owners or to the Regulatory Marketing Committee. Since there is no rice mill here, the farmers are bound to sell their paddy to RMC only. The latter as told earlier pays much less price to the farmers than the subsidized rate. The farmers are bound to make the distress sale of their paddy even at a rate of Rs 300 per quintal, because the farmers have to repay the loan they have incurred from the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society. As a matter of fact, the Society collects more interest from the farmers than the fixed rate. Moreover, the Society supplies such agricultural implements, say, for instance iron plough, whereas the local farmers prefer wooden plough. Thus the farmers are exploited both by the Regulatory Marketing Committee and Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society.

In every Government office access to information by the farmers is conspicus by its absence. Sri Sahoo said that he war ready to cooperate with the movement for bringing about transparency in the Government administration for the people in the villages.

Sri Manoj Kumar Bej, Sarpanch, Bhanrpur :
Sri Bej told out of his experience that the Government Servants do not give information about different schemes to the people including even elected representatives. Since the level of education and awareness among the people is low in addition to lack of any unity among them, the people can not raise a united voice of protect against such practice of secrecy on the part of the officials. As he knows, in a PHC there was enough stock of saline bottles meant for the poor patients, but a poor patient would be denied of getting it on this or that false pretext, such as, the store-keeper is absent. In Police Stations, one has to struggle a lot in order to get an FIR lodged or to receive a copy thereof Under the circumstances, the people need to be inculcated with a message about their fundamental Right to know vis-a-vis the Government agencies.

Dr B.K. Das, Medical Officer (Homeopathy), Gholabandha:
Dr Das while appreciating the current move for Right to Information legislation in Orissa, however expressed a few apprehensions. The people's character has so much gone down and they have become so much materialistic that they won't hesitate to make a wrongful use of their access to information just for their selfish ends. Just as opening of more Police Stations does not necessarily lead to a declining crime rate, the introduction of a new law on Right to Information wouldn't improve the existing scenario of the society at large. So long our educational system teaches wrong values to the students, we cannot hope to bring any radical change in the existing system. Moreover, even if a law on Right to Information is enacted, a member of the public cannot do anything when an officer refuses to disclose the requested information. The organizers of campaign for Right to Information should bear in mind all these lessons while working for the enactment of RTI in Orissa.

Sri Bikram Sahoo, Singbila:
The Village Committees, which are supposedly the watchdog of all developmental activities in the village do exist on pen and paper only. Some individuals as a matter of fact do decide and work out plans of their own in the name of the non-existent village committee. The common villagers who are usually ignorant about the schemes of development administered by the Government do not challenge such proxy functioning of the village committee either. Not only that. Some villagers do also play double standards in their interaction with the self- styled leaders of the village committees. The Workshops of today' s kind need be organized at Panchayat and village level so as to facilitate proper functioning of village committees.

Sri Kabindra Bidyadhar, Advocate:
He raised a few questions concerning the proposed Right to Information Act for Orissa. Firstly, whom they should approach for getting the desired information? Secondly, instead of running around to different offices in search of a desired peace of information, should there be not one centralized information Centre where the people can easily visit and apply for what they want. Moreover, in view of the proposed legislation on Right to Information there should be some necessary safeguards too against the possible wrongful use of the information to be accessed by the people of vested interests.

Sri Dharmu Moharana, an NGO Functionary:
Though we have achieved political independence 54 years back, we do not feel ourselves free and independent while interacting with the Government officials, who continue to behave as our masters since the colonial days. The ongoing movement for Freedom of Information is like the second phase pf our freedom struggle, which if made successful would bring forth a true spirit of freedom to the millions of Indians who have not till yet tasted it. All of us need to exert ourselves for making the present campaign for Right to Information reach to its logical culmination.

Sri Padma Lochan Rath, Social Worker:
Corruption is rampant everywhere and we do not have a Mahatma Gandhi to speak out against it. Every Government office displays a warning, 'Do not pay bribe to the Government employees'. But the common people have invariably to pay some or other bribe to the Office employees even to get small, small works done. Every body knows, the Block Office pays less than the announced rate to the laborers on duty, but shows on record a higher payment to have been made by them. To check all this, what is needed utmost is transparency in official transactions, which a law on Right to Information can bring about.

Sri Krushna Chandra Mohanty, Ex-Chairman, Harichandanpur Panchayat Samiti:
He extended his heartfelt support to the ongoing campaign for Right to Information in Orissa, since in his opinion this single Right of the people can bring about solution to manifold malaises afflicting the relationship between the people and Government agencies. Sri Mohanty out of his experience said that Palli Sabha which is empowered to decide the beneficiaries of Indira Awas Yojana is never called for the purpose. As a result, not only the selection of beneficiaries gets flawed, but also the entire scheme goes astray. The Government officers are described as Public Servants, but behave practically as masters of the public. The officials put on such an awful and authoritian air around them that the common people who visit them in connection with this or that work, are made to feel humbled and subdued before them. Unless and until the bureaucracy changes its attitude towards the people in tune with democratic norms, the common people of our country cannot hope to develop further in any direction. Sri Mohanty assured to extend his cooperation to the present movement for making the Right to Information into a law in the State of Orissa.

Sri Pitamber Mishra, an NGO Functionary :
Sri Mishra opined that not only the selection of beneficiaries, but also the entire process of construction of the building under Indira Awash Yojana should be made transparent before the concerned villagers.

The DPEP (District Primary Education Programme) which runs in Keonjhar District is being implemented in a haphazard manner due to lack of participation of the village committee in its implementation. Similarly all the development programmes at grass-root level end up in being grand failures due to non-participation of the people. With access to information by the people turning into a constitutional right of theirs and the transparency and accountability that are likely to accompany the legislated right, a truly participatory and sustainable process or development would be possible.

Sri Chitta Ranjan Behera, a Social Activist:
Addressing the Workshop as an invitee speaker, Sri Behera in his talk dealt with the apprehensions and queries raised by several speakers on the proposal to legislate a Right to Information in Orissa. It is true that mere legislation wouldn't improve the functioning of the system when there is visible depravity of moral and ethical standard of the people all around. But the root point is, how could the entire nation came to such a pass in the post- independence era? The root of the present day degradation can be traced back to the peculiarly hegemonistic legislative and administrative structure that the British colonial rulers erected and perfected with an intention to keep the native Indians away and ignorant about how they were being governed. The Official Secrets Act introduced in 1923 is a classic example of debarring the people from participation in and access to administration, where by the foundation of a culture of secrecy was laid down by the colonial rulers. In course of time this heinous culture of secrecy percolated down to the public psyche, so much so that even after 54 years of independence, one common Indian hesitates to share a piece of official information available with him with another. Just as a Government servant thinks the official information to be an asset not to be shared with another Government servant or a member of the public, the common man thinks likewise and behaves as such. The atmosphere of mutual suspicion and envy which engulfs our entire social life today has its roots in the culture of secrecy that is perpetuated since colonial days by the essentially unaltered legal- administrative structure in the post-independence period. The Conduct Rules for Public

Servants of both Centre and States, which are now in force since colonial days with little amendment here and there and prohibit the Government servants from disclosing any unauthorized information to the citizens, have built up a formidable barrier between the administration and people and perpetuates the culture of secrecy in the society at large. It is simply incongruous that the Public Servants so called are not obliged to share information with the public who are supposedly their masters.

Thus the moral-cultural regeneration of our people necessitates a radical recast and de- colonization of the legal-administrative framework of the nation from top to down so as to bring about openness and transparency in public life.

Sri Behera then emphasized the need for formulating a proper citizen friendly legislation for Right to Information in the State of Orissa keeping in view both positive and negative consequences of RTI laws in 8 States of the country. While in some States, the people have gained a better access to official information thanks to the new law, in some others they continue to be debarred from such access on this or that ground which the law keeps a room for. Except a few limited areas concerning the security, sovereignty and integrity of the nation, all the remaining areas of the administration should be open to access for information to the public. A model RTI law should provide for penalizing the designated information officer of a public body for his failure to serve the requested information within the deadline. The processing fee against the information to be served should be low and affordable on the part of the common people. The proposed law should also provide for proactive disclosure of essential information by the administration before the public by means of all possible communication media, especially when the information relates to a disaster natural or manmade, a mega project, or a new scheme of the Government and the like.

The common people have a vital role to play in the matter of enacting a proper RTI legislation in our State. They need to discuss and debate various aspects of the proposed law at village and Panchayat level in order to build up a strong climate of opinion to influence the State Government to go for a proper citizen-friendly RTI legislation.

Sri Swarajya Biswal, Govrnment Advocate, Orissa State Administrative Tribunal:
Sri Biswal thanked the organizers of the Workshop for having ensured attendance of the very persons whom the RTI legislation is mostly concerned with, namely the existing and former leaders of Panchayats, who are also the opinion builders in the villages.

Despite India's independence 54 years back, there has been no corresponding reform of the system of governance that prevailed in the colonial era. Like the Official Secrets Act of 1923 there are innumerable laws and rules still in force, which were framed by the British. But democracy cannot function, let alone progress in a situation marked by administration's secrecy and confidentiality before the people. Panchayati Raj institutions are symbols of our democracy. Now the elected Chairman of a Zilla Parishad is given some important powers over the administration including the power to comment on the CCR of the District Collector. But he knows an instance where the Collector issued a circular ordering his subordinates not to disclose the contents of the correspondence made between him and the State Government to the Chairman Zilla Parishad, even relating to the developmental programmes in the district.

Sri Biswal cited another instance where the BDO of Nayagarh Block didn't deliver a pack of information material sent from the State Government to the Chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, for whom it was meant, for months on end. When the issue reached the higher officials in the State Secretariat, the latter took the whole matter casually and didn't reproach the BDO for his negligence. The underlying reason might be that the higher bureaucrats consider the BDO as a junior member of their fraternity, whereas they take the elected Chairman of Panchayat Samiti to be alien and dispensable.

As a result of such cultivated discrimination between the appointed bureaucrat and elected representative, the BDO has a greater control over the Contractor who has been entrusted with the construction of a village road than the Chairman of Panchayat Samiti, Sarpanch of the GP or the villagers themselves.

To reverse this wrong tradition, and to empower the Panchayati Raj bodies and the villagers they represent, there is an imperative need to render the administration at grass root level open, transparent and accountable by way of enacting the Right to Information law in our State. Once the villagers are genuinely empowered, the Government in the Centre or State are bound to act as per the people's interest with the top-heavy bureaucracy giving way.

Sri Kalakar Das, President:
In his concluding address Sri Das observed that most of the participants have welcomed the proposal for a Right to Information law for Orissa. But they should not sit silent hereafter, but go round to the villages to make the rural poor aware about the most potential weapon which they could acquire by way of the Right to Information Act vis-a-vis the powerful, well entrenched bastion of the bureaucratic regime.

At last Sri Das summed up the consensus of the house into the form of a Resolution, which called for early enactment of a proper people friendly law for Right to Information in Orissa on one hand, and the need to carry forward the ongoing movement for an open, transparent and responsive governance down to the village level. The Resolution was unanimously passed by the members present by way of clapping of hands.

Vote of thanks was offered by Sri Sachidanand Prusty to the participants and invitee speakers of the Workshop. He hoped that such Workshops at GP and village level need be attempted by the social workers as a follow-up of the present one.