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On
Record RTI Bill, just a
beginning |
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Privatising
SEBs:
The other view
Reflections Profile Diversities
— Delhi Letter
Kashmir
Diary
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RTI Bill, just a beginning After
a decade-long struggle, our fundamental right to seek information from the government without having to beg and plead is within our grasp. On May 11, the keenly awaited Right to Information (RTI) Bill was finally passed by the Lok Sabha. After the President’s assent, it will come into force as the new national Right to Information Act 2005. This overwhelming success comes after hectic lobbying by civil society with the United Progressive Alliance government. Last year, the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme promised to provide a transparent and accountable government by making the national RTI law more progressive, participatory and meaningful. To a large extent, the government has redeemed that promise. The new RTI law is a much improved version of the old Freedom of Information Act 2002, which was passed by the previous National Democratic Alliance government but never implemented. In many ways, the final RTI Act is an improvement of the original Bill introduced in Parliament in December 2004. The Bill underwent a gradual metamorphosis after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Grievances, Law and Justice, which invited oral and written submissions from the civil society, submitted its report with its set of recommendations to Parliament in March 2005. A select Group of Ministers also reviewed the Bill and made changes. A major forward step is that the Act now extends to all public authorities in the States and Union Territories. Thus, it is not confined to the Central Government alone. This change is a major win for RTI advocates, who have long fought for a comprehensive law because only eight states and one Union Territory in the country currently have an access law in place. In fact, the Act has gone further and has also incorporated the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s recommendation to widen the definition of “public authority” covered by the law to include panchayats and municipal bodies as also private bodies which are substantially finance by the government. Considering that more than 70 per cent of the population lives in the villages and that the government disburses millions of rupees in welfare schemes for the rural poor through local institutes, widening the scope of the public authority to include local self-government institutions is a step in the right direction. Another important provision is that the law exempts people living below poverty line from paying any fee for accessing information. More generally, every fee must be “reasonable”; it must never exceed the actual cost of supplying the information. This is important because in a country where a majority of people often struggle to get one proper square meal a day, levying fee would have strained their limited financial resources to such an extent that using the law would have been almost impossible in reality. These positive steps notwithstanding, the legislation still has some serious weaknesses. For example, a range of security and intelligence agencies have been entirely exempted from the law. At least though, the law does not apply to such bodies if the information requested pertains to an allegation of a human rights violation or corruption. What is disappointing is that the final form of the Act introduced an additional exempted class of government agencies — allowing the states to exempt security and intelligence agencies as well. This multiplies the number of agencies exempted from the purview of the law manifold. An additional weakness concerns the appointment of the Information Commissioners (IC). The IC will hear appeals from people who believe that government officials have wrongly withheld information from them. Setting up ICs is a radical new initiative under the new Act and is a very positive step towards openness. An independent appeals mechanism is a key feature of a strong regime and ICs have been established throughout the world for this purpose. In many countries they have been proved to be very effective in cracking open formerly closed government bodies and enabling the public to properly subject them to scrutiny. To ensure the independence and autonomy of the ICs, the original Bill provided that a selection committee for appointing Information Commissioners would consist of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. However, the final Act has dropped the Chief Justice and replaced him with a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. Similarly, at the state level, the Chief Minister will nominate a Cabinet Minister to the Committee. This dominance of the Committee by government representatives could lead to bias and political horse-trading in the selection process. It is hoped that that this will not happen though. The government has consistently stated its commitment to open government. Let the first selection process prove its commitment. Even though the penalties have been strengthened in the new Act, in practice, there may be some confusion about how they will be imposed. For the penalties clause imposes daily penalties not only for delays in providing information but also for destruction and falsification of records or the deliberate provision of inaccurate or misleading information. However, how can a daily penalty be levied for the latter set of offences — how many days are calculated for destroying a record? It is additionally problematic that only fines can be imposed, and not prison sentences for very serious offences. But what if someone destroys documents revealing major corruption — severe enough penalties must be available to fit the crime. In spite of these deficiencies, the legislation does provide a strong foundation to ensure an open government. The Manmohan Singh government should now focus its energy and resources on implementation for the simple reason that a good law is only a beginning and not an end in
itself. The writers are associated with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi |
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Privatising SEBs: The
other view The
report of two prominent credit rating organisations — ICRA and CRISIL — on the performance of the power system of unbundled State Electricity Boards in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Gujarat, on the one hand, and Punjab in its present form (not yet unbundled), on the other, are revealing and educative. There is no doubt that the performance of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), in its present composite form, is better than all the unbundled SEBs in most segments of the power system. The results prove that the scheme of reforms adopted and being enforced by the Centre is basically wrong, defective and not suitable in our existing system. There is fundamentally nothing wrong with the present system of SEBs. The advisers/consultants selected for suggesting reforms in the power sector were not really competent for the job assigned to them for want of working experience in the Indian power systems. Unfortunately, the Centre had no competent expertise to assess the real value of their recommendations and foresee the results. In the process, it failed to learn from the performance of unbundled SEBs in spite of bad performance year after year. The present process of privatisation and unbundling should be immediately put on hold or rather abandoned and the working of power sector analysed systematically by a group of experts in the development and operation of the power system in the country. It should pinpoint the shortcomings and deficiencies in the present system and suggest practical and workable solutions to improve the working of every wing of the power system. A committee of seven persons, four with long experience in the power sector, one from the Planning Commission, one each from the Union Power and Finance Ministries with a power sector expert as Chairman, should be entrusted with this responsibility. I had submitted a proposal on these lines to Union Energy Minister P.M. Syed. A very erroneous impression is sought to be created that privatisation and unbundling of the SEBs is a statutory requirement under the Electricity Act, 2003. This Act only contains enabling provisions for action by the state government. After the reports of two expert organisations as mentioned above, the case for privatisation and unbundling has become weak. The government should re-examine the matter coolly. No one resents reforms. While aiming at improvements, reforms should ensure that results cannot be achieved by those who have not been through the mill. And the country is not short of such
experts. The writer is former Chairman, Punjab State Electricity Board |
Reflections
The other day I received a very interesting e-mail. It was an invitation to open the Suggestions Summit of an annual event of ISSAN, which stands for Indian National Suggestion Schemes Association. It is a unique platform for industries to come together to share, present and recognise innovative suggestions made at the work place by any one from within their rank and file. It brings contributors together through such summits, regionally and nationally. A senior jury selects the meritorious presentations, documents and then shares them. The organisations to which the innovators belong get duly recognised and rewarded for their contributions. For me accepting the invitation was real joy for I have experienced and hugely benefited by the inherent ‘Power of Suggestion’ at work. I knew how indispensable this practice is for non-stop improved performance. So when I accepted their invitation by an immediate return e-mail it did surprise them. (They told me so). They had only assumed my belief in the ‘Power of Suggestion’, but perhaps did not know the intensity of my belief in the concept. In my sharing address I was specifically asked to disclose some specific occasions when practice of the ‘Power of Suggestion’ actually became the driving vehicle for change, for my colleagues, the people we were serving me personally and professionally. I did, to underscore the point that, herein laid the potential for better governance. And the more we believe and practice this the more we achieve and deliver. I shared the experience of my first Police district assignment as Deputy Commissioner of West Delhi and the first suggestion in crime control given by an experienced Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr K.K. Chabbra (who was twice my age). I respected him for his professional knowledge. He suggested the beat constable system. This meant deployment of area police officers with specific area policing responsibility. As soon as I understood the value of this method, we lost no time in implementing this in all police stations of the district. We involved all ranks and trained and inspired one and all. We then moved on to improve upon the initial suggestion to meet the changing demands. Of the many things we did, the most fundamental was my own personal commitment as the leader. To ensure full understanding, respect and seriousness to the scheme, I was visiting ‘any’ police station daily every morning, (and I had 19 of them) to meet with and listen to the beat officers (all police constables) about their experiences, achievements and challenges as they were acquiring from their new method of work. I found an amazing sense of accomplishment and a whole fresh thinking. From these interactions came many more suggestions and solutions. The improvement in the quality of policing became evident. Crimes came under control. People’s perception of policing began to change. Media reports now were different about the district. We started to receive valuable pre-emptive information. It made us much more respected. With it the reporting increased, along with crime detection, correction and prevention. The day came when this system of ours became a role model for others. The then Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi asked my Police Commissioner in a full meeting, “why this could not be extended to the other police districts of Delhi”? The CP replied, “Sir we do not have the resources”. The Lt-Governor did not quiz the PC further to ask as to wherefrom the (West District) was getting the resources. The fact is we were only positioning our resources differently. Till now the Beat Policing System remains the surest way of good policing. The better it is done, the more effective crime detection, correction and prevention will become. My district assignment was followed by traffic police work when I did not know the roads of Delhi myself, with the Ninth Asian Games only a few months away. Again it was the power of listening of the suggestions made by the rank and file and the commuters were institutionalised, valued and responded to improve the traffic management systems. This is exactly why and how the Tow Ways, i.e. the Cranes, were positioned on the roads to clear traffic bottlenecks (inclusive of the VIP cars). The point being made was that listening to the rank and file enables and initiates thinking, participation, contribution, growth, enthusiasm, recognition, identification of talent, economy, perfection, quality, transparency, most of all, responsibility with accountability. Are these not all the ingredients of good governance I ask? Following the appropriate use of the ‘Power of Suggestion’s is a depiction of the willing intention. It keeps us focused and prevents mistakes while ensuring we reach our destinations without losses. However, it all depends how much we want it all this way! The key is it begins with the leadership. This applies to all levels and areas of management. The more it is practised the more it will become productive. Having worked in the West, it is no different anywhere. This is a human need and needed
most. |
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Profile by Harihar Swarup During his long career as an “heaven born” IAS officer, he has gone through the rough and tumble of administration and sometimes, perhaps unwittingly, caught in the whirlpool of politics. Howsoever he may hate, epithets like his close association with 10 Janpath and the “most powerful bureaucrat” have come to stay. His adversaries may try to run him down, but the fact remains that he is an upright person with a charming personality. He has the streak of a writer. Bureaucrat and writer rolled into one is a rare combination. Chawla’s track record shows that he has the knack of grappling with controversies and once pushed in an unsavoury situation, he is not the one to run away. He emerged unscathed from many crises — from the time of Emergency when he was the Secretary to Delhi’s Lt-Governor Kishan Chand, to the days of the Capital’s worst power crisis. Chawla joins the Nirvachan Sadan at a time when the constitutional body is being targeted by a fellow bureaucrat and some political parties too are not favourably inclined towards it. He asserts, “I will uphold the highest traditions of the Election Commission”. He will serve with the Election Commission till 2010 and get elevated as the Chief Election Commissioner in April 2009. Besides a tough bureaucrat, Chawla has another facet of his personality. He is a writer and, sometimes, the sensitivity of creator of prose takes over the stubbornness of a bureaucrat. His role of a constitutional authority has to be watched. His forthcoming book is “Travelogue”, on which he has been working for many years. Chawla made international name not as a bureaucrat but as an authorised biographer of Mother Teresa. Over 3.5 lakh copies of the book have been sold the world over. It has since been translated in many languages. The amount accruing from the Indian editions went to the Missionaries of Charity. The royalty from the overseas edition was routed to the Lepra India Trust that Chawla had set up to offer vocational training to those cured of leprosy. Chawla was inspired by a report on vocational rehabilitation and social integration of leprosy patients released by Mother Teresa as far back as 1987 and translated in 19 languages. It was around this time that he got her permission to write the biography. Written over a period of five years, the book was published in Britain in 1992. Chawla had met Mother Teresa in 1975, when he was Secretary to Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor. She had written to him asking him to inaugurate a home for the elderly disabled. The letter itself, typically of Mother, was on a very ordinary piece of paper, written in her own strong hand. Chawla, who had accompanied the Lt-Governor was taken aback by the humility of the sisters and the poverty of the elderly who lived in the Home. The Mother was herself a living example of simple living and high thinking. Even though her sari was sparkling white, Chawla noticed it was darned at many places. When Chawla once asked her if there were fewer destitutes as a result of her efforts, the Mother said laughingly she did not know but, after a pause, observed: “Those who die with us, die in peace…for that’s for
eternity”.
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Diversities — Delhi Letter by Humra Quraishi So the UPA government has completed one year. And it’s been a stocktaking time. This weekend, several civil society groups of the country met here in the capital to review its performance, plus table their disappointments and talk about the shortcomings together with their expectations and the future course. Some of those who met on May 20 at the IIC were representatives of Institute of Social Sciences, Action Aid International-India, National Social Watch, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, ANHAD, SANSAD, NACDOR, Aman Trust, Human Rights Law Network, One World South Asia, National Centre for Advocacy Studies. This coming week, on May 25, several prominent social scientists, activists and academics have been invited by SAHMAT to discuss along similar pattern. Prof Barun De, Prof Irfan Habib, Prof Arjun Dev, Prof Roop Rekha Verma, Prof Prabhat Patnaik, Prof Zoya Hasan, Dr Rajiv Gupta, and Mr M.K. Raina will be the speakers. They would assess the Manmohan Singh government’s one year with special focus on education and culture.
Capturing tsunami This weekend, young photographer Sahir Raza displayed 60 of his photographs which he shot whilst tsunami was raging our coastal belts. Inaugurated on May 20 by Tarun Tejpal at the Arpana Art Gallery, they are really hard hitting shots of the disaster. What I found particularly impressive is the fact that though Raza is a first year student at St Stephen’s College here, he has developed the sensitivity to have travelled to the coasts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andamans to capture those haunting images and even documented the post-tsunami situation. This isn’t his first photo exhibition. His earlier show on the Gujarat carnage too had received much acclaim. Whilst viewing these photographs, I kept muttering to myself if only more of our youth reach out to the realities of the day, they would be automatically leading a more fulfilling life.
Anthology of new writing ‘First Proof’ (Penguin) is an anthology of ‘new writing’, from some of our best. Though this will be an annual publication of Penguin, for the start volume, there are writers like Ajai Shukla, Arpita Das, Jerry Pinto, Mishi Saran, Mita Ghose, Navtej Sarna, Ranjit Hoskote and several
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Kashmir Diary to integration immense by David Devadas Once
more with feeling! That was my reaction last week when I read Iftekhar Gilani’s book, My Days in Prison. I was reacting to Gilani’s account of George Fernandes’ role in caring for his family and helping to secure his release from jail. Gilani is the Kashmiri journalist based in New Delhi who was arrested after a search at his home found nothing incriminating in June 2002 – the same day his father-in-law, Ali Shah Geelani of the Hurriyat Conference, was similarly raided and arrested in Srinagar. Gilani was charged on the basis of a download on his computer from a Pakistani website of a document on troop deployment in Jammu and Kashmir — a document that was available with several libraries including the government-backed Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis. Fernandes, who was Defence Minister then, showed Gilani’s wife paternal affection and invited her and her children to stay at his residence if they felt unsafe, Gilani records. And he moved within the government to have the ridiculous charge withdrawn. I have found over years of research in Kashmir that Fernandes has been consistently, courageously and sensitively involved there and his signal role in lessening the alienation of the Kashmiri people has not been sufficiently appreciated. When the Kashmiri freedom struggle was at its height in early 90s, he was part of a delegation of MPs that visited the state. Most of the MPs were overwhelmed by the resentment they encountered among the few Kashmiris they met amid utterly deserted streets and an evidently paralysed administration. But Fernandes slipped away to a deserted, dilapidated railway guesthouse (he was then the Railway Minister) and called up local trade union and political friends. He was soon visited there — without any security to guard him — by one of the top JKLF leaders. Carrying a Kalashnikov, he told the Union Minister of the repression he had personally undergone during the 1987 elections before he had taken up the gun. Fernandes met many others over the next three days, until he was summoned urgently for an all-party meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence. There, Rajiv Gandhi, who was the Leader of the Opposition, suggested that Fernandes be tasked with sorting out the Kashmir imbroglio and so he was appointed Minister for Kashmir Affairs. Fernandes would hop around the state in a special craft on weekends. On one such visit to Doda, he was told that a belligerent crowd was gathered in the mosque and it was dangerous for him to go into town. He went straight to the mosque and was soon addressing the crowd there on a microphone — holding forth on his favourite theme, the ways in which the Congress had throttled democracy. Totally flummoxed by his diatribe against the Emergency and Italian marble in Mehrauli farmhouses, the leaders of the crowd turned docilely to asking the Minister to arrange jobs for the many unemployed graduates in the town. Fernandes carried away a huge file of applications, while still holding forth against the Congress. He was soon in touch with the then Mirwaiz, Mohammed Farooq, who undertook to lead a group of militant boys to New Delhi for talks. Of course, Mirwaiz Farooq was assassinated by militants a week before that was to have happened but, even after the VP Singh government fell a few months later, Fernandes remained in touch with key Kashmiri leaders. He once described Dr Abdul Ahad Guroo, one of the JKLF’s ideologues whom he had been in touch with, as a great patriot. Guroo too was assassinated by militants not far from the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, where he worked. Qazi Nisar, the preacher with unrivaled popularity in south Kashmir, was similarly in touch with Fernandes — and with Rajesh Pilot, who was the Union Minister of State for Internal Security — when he too was assassinated. Given this background of empathetic engagement with secessionists, Fernandes faced a unique challenge when Mr Vajpayee appointed him Defence Minister. But he rose admirably to the task. Even today, army officers look up to Fernandes as an outstanding leader and administrator but he was able to instill among those on the ground in Kashmir a level of empathy for Kashmiris that had been missing before. The army often used to come across in the mid-90s as an occupation force dealing with a civilian population of enemies. The damage to India’s integrity that was done then has been tough to repair but it has been possible in no small measure due to the army’s behaviour in the early years of this millennium. Now that Kashmir seems to be firmly on the road to integration, the nation has much to be grateful to Fernandes
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If saying Ram gave liberation, saying candy made your mouth sweet, saying fire burned your feet, saying water quenched your thirst, saying food banished hunger, the whole world would be free. — Kabir Give not what you want not as a gift. — The Upanishads Everyone must be treated equally irrespective of relationships. Sages spend life times searching for this balance. — The Mahabharata Let us all be one heart, full of love. — Mother Teresa Believe dreams are not meant to put you to sleep, but to alert and arouse you to your immense possibilities. — David Phillips The only way to obtain His grace and love is to meditate on his true name in the early hours of the morning. Our good actions will be rewarded with a better life, even if salvation comes from His Grace alone. All this, says Guru Nanak, shows he is the True One. — Guru Nanak  |
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