R.I.P. For The R.T.I.?

It was to be India's version of glasnost, and the fanfare that accompanied its arrival was worthy of the occasion. When the upa government set up the Central Information Commission (CIC) in 2005, as a statutory body mandated to translate the Right to Information (RTI) legislation into action, it was considered a landmark move to bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of government. Everytime a citizen demanded information on issues of governance, it was meant to dig it out from the various arms of the state.

But three years down the line, that promise stands belied by sheer logistics

"If things continue as they are, then the RTI Act, I am afraid, will collapse very soon." Wajahat Habibullah CIC
The commission presently has a mountain of 8,541 appeals pending before it. These, it says, will take a long time to process because of poor infrastructure, inadequate staff and the lack of a compatible system to answer queries. Wajahat Habibullah, a former bureaucrat and the country's first chief information commissioner, is a frustrated man today.

Candid about the mess in the commission, he outlined to Outlook the exact problems. "The computer system is not compatible with (the task of) delivering answers to queries asked by people. We get RTI applications seeking information from various departments. And since we need to coordinate with various departments, the commission needs complete computerisation which should be compatible with each and every department of the various ministries."

Not surprisingly, there are 3,000 appeals on his desk alone. To clear them, he needs more than the four information officers he's had till recently. "There are a lot of areas we need to work on to expedite the whole process of disposal of queries," says the CIC. "If things continue as they are, then the RTI Act, I'm afraid, will collapse very soon. We need to have infrastructural support to run it."

The lack of infrastructure, feels noted RTI activist and Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal, is merely an excuse. "The chief information commissioner's claim that the delay is because of an incompatible computer system is absurd," he says. "There is this example of a widow who wasn't getting her pension and put in an RTI application to know the reason. The matter came up for hearing eight months later when she had already expired. The very meaning of the RTI Act is being defeated if a citizen cannot be provided with information within a reasonable period of three to four months."

Between April 2007 and 2008, the CIC got 22,688 appeals and complaints, of which 12,411 were registered. The rest were rejected on various grounds ranging from applications not being filed in proper formats or for asking "irrelevant information". The fact that pending queries in virtually every state run into thousands reflects of the snail's pace at which applications get processed. Maharashtra alone has some 16,000 pending applications. And some of them could make their way to the CIC should the applicants not be satisfied with the answers they receive.

Waking up to this crisis before the CIC, the government has now appointed four more information officers. More remarkably, it appointed noted Mumbai-based RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi (see box) as central information commissioner last week. It was Gandhi's appeal, in fact, which revealed the number of requests pending before the commission.

It remains to be seen how Gandhi will make a difference at the commission when he assumes charge on September 18. Right now, the commission is not making things any easy for applicants. As Kejriwal puts it, "Till last year an applicant could see the status of his appeal on the CIC website. The daily case list could also be accessed. All that has been silently removed." If things don't improve, the CIC might just start getting called Commission for the Iron Curtain.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080922&fname=RTI+(F)&sid=1

If I Fail, Please Abuse Me

Smruti Koppikar

So says Shailesh Gandhi, the RTI crusader who will now be Central Information Commissioner

Shailesh Gandhi—IIT-Bombay alumnus, first-generation entrepreneur, well-known Right to Information (RTI) activist—dons another hat on September 18. When sworn in as a Central Information Commissioner in Delhi, he will become the first and only non-bureaucrat to hold the constitutional post. "I have no idea who selected me and why," says Gandhi with characteristic candour. "But now that I am there (till 2012), my priorities are to bring down pending appeals because pendency can kill the RTI Act."

Few have seen the RTI law in action from as close quarters as Gandhi. Single-handedly for four years, without fuss, from his modest Mumbai home he has asked hard-hitting and embarrassing questions to those in high offices. Gandhi's goal: to make the government accountable to its citizens. A veteran of more than 800 RTI applications, Gandhi lectures widely to show citizens how simple the RTI process is. "We have to become a participatory democracy, it's not enough to vote. We must monitor those whom we vote," he says.

Gandhi, 61, who sold his fully-indigenous plastics business three years ago to concentrate on "something socially relevant", will take only Re 1 as salary. His moment of truth, he says, came at an iit alumni event 10-12 years ago when a former professor asked him if he still nursed complaints about society that he did in his 20s. "I realised: I am society. And it's still as messy," he says. A few years later, RTI fired him up.

Gandhi sees RTI as "the best tool in the hands of a citizen, with potential to change the face of India". Staunchly refusing to start or join an organisation, Gandhi has demonstrated that a tenacious battle often starts with a simple query. From police commissioners, charity commissioners, chief ministers to the PMO—his RTI application on the PM's Relief Fund is pending in appeal—Gandhi has spared none. "If three crore Indians spend an hour a month and just Rs 40 to convert their cribs against the system into RTI applications, and if only 30 per cent succeed in making an impact, it's still a significant cumulative change in our system," he says.

Like many in the RTI movement, Gandhi believes pendency will damage people's enthusiasm. "Delhi has 8,500 appeals pending; Maharashtra about 16,000. Why should we accept this delay," he asks. His number-crunching shows a commissioner can dispose 4,000 appeals in a year. "Commissioners are not clerks, they must deliver results. My personal guarantee is no pendency beyond three months." Gandhi accounts for the possibility of failure. "I am an activist, but this is an opportunity to do something positive," he says. "If I fail, please abuse me."

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080922&fname=RTI+%28F%29&sid=2