Right to Information means that every one shall have access to all sorts of information, on which he can also express his opinion. But I am sure, if this right be conferred on us, most people won't be able to assert and realize it. How to assert such a right, depends upon you and the circumstances, in which you are placed. I have got an apprehension that this Right to Information shall again turn into an Act on pen and paper like many other Acts, which are already in existence. But if the NGOs who are present here decide to work with zeal and commitment, then the right to information can be made into a reality. The NGO with which I am associated and the all India body to which it is affiliated, have been striving for enactment of Right to Information at the level of both Centre and States during the last 15 to 20 years. When we found that the Government became hesitant to pass the Right to Information Act, we campaigned for the introduction of 'Citizens' Charter' to be announced by each Government Department. The Citizens' Charter as you might know, should ideally contain the list of services and facilities and the terms and conditions thereof to be provided by each Government Department for the public. As a matter of fact, only a few Departments of Government have announced their respective Citizens' Charter. But still we observe that some Departments like electricity, telephone, etc. are not carrying out their duties as per such charters. We the common citizens are also not properly aware of the provisions of such charters and also hesitant to lodge any protest, whenever we come across the cases of violation of the Charters by the concerned Departments.
There are some private financial organizations like share business companies whose day-to-day conduct and transactions should remain transparent before the public, especially the investors. As an investor, one has the right to know, how many shares and the corresponding monitory value thereof are held by a Company and what is the profit made out of such investment. Though we are interested to know this fact, we seldom raise the query before the concerned company authorities.
Similarly one has the right to know about the particulars of medicines sold by pharmaceutical companies.
I don't agree with those who think that the private organizations should remain excluded from the purview of Right to Information. The logic that no private organization especially a business company can afford to be fully transparent before the public doesn't hold good in my opinion. Each professional practitioner, be he a doctor or a lawyer has some social obligation and is therefore accountable to the public for the fees he takes from a client.
With these preliminary observations, I want the speakers to express their opinion one after another on the topic of the day.
Throughout the day, the delegates have discussed the issue of Right to Information from various angles and on the whole expressed their opinion in favour of its enactment in Orissa. But the question arises, whether and how the law can be implemented following its enactment? As a matter of fact, a law only left to itself cannot be realized in practice, in regard to its objectives, unless the people themselves come forward to enforce it in their day-to-day interaction with the public servants. The public servants, as you know, won't like to disclose information on their own, even if the law on Right to Information is enacted. In such a situation, what should the public do? In stead of taking a fatalistic view of the anti-people nature of the public servants and administration as a whole, the members of public should raise their voice of protect against the case of indifference, negligence or refusal to disclose information on the part of the public servants.
Who is the Government, after all? The public servants, who have been appointed to discharge the various functions of the State constitute the Government. They may be our own brothers and sisters. If they don't serve the public interest, for which they have been appointed, the members of the public themselves should find out ways and means of how to make them serve the public interest.
Now, there is a go for privatization of all government bodies. In some cases, multinational companies from the outside are taking over the ownership and management of the government undertakings. I want to ask, whose fault is it that these government undertakings are passing on to the hands of private companies and MNCs? Who were the people managing hitherto the government undertakings? In fact, it is we, ourselves, who were entrusted with the management of these bodies. Since we could not manage these bodies properly and rather let them run on loss from year to year, the need and role of private companies to manage these bodies arose. Maybe after some years, there would come a need again for replacing the private management by government management. Such a cycle of change is operating in our system due to the ignorance and apathy of the common people in all situations. We are being harassed and exploited due to our own shakiness in asserting our legitimate rights. We need to ponder over this question seriously.
Now, the ruling trend everywhere, is the maxim, 'borrow and spend'. Both India and Orissa are glaring instances of this phenomenon. How far can we afford to traverse this suicidal path? Time has now come to reverse the trend.
Now, coming to the issue of Right to Information, let me tell you that, once in the past 27 Departments of the Central Government introduced a Citizens' Charter and also opened an Information Center for informing the public about the affairs of the Government. For some time, the Information Center worked, and the common people who could apply in prescribed procedure and pursue the matter were able to get some information or the other from the said Centre. But now there is no such Centre or any office thereof functioning at present. The real reason behind the discontinuance of the Centre was the apprehension of the Government executives that the people armed with information could cause a lot of disturbances to their position and power. In such a situation, where all public servants are corrupt, how can they allow transparency in their activities before the public? However, it is now NGOs and other civil society groups, who should press for the functioning of Citizen's Charter for every Department of the Government. Moreover, that Charter should inform the common citizens as to what services a Department can render, procedure of the services to be rendered, dateline by which a particular service is to be rendered and the like.
The MLAs and MPs, who are in charge of legislating for the country and the State should in fact exercise themselves for introducing Citizens' Charter and other such mechanisms necessary for a transparent governance. But they don't do that, because of their fear that transparency would lead to the exposure of their corruption and malpractices. I wonder, why should the members of public felicitate at all and garland the Ministers, MPs and MLAs, who in fact deserve to be hated and boycotted.