RTI- a tool for transparency and accountable governance: NVCO

Every year the Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) observes the RTI Week-long celebration along with the rest of the states in the country. NVCO President Kezhokhoto Savi said that the Right to Information (RTI) Bill was passed by the Parliament of India on 15th June, 2005 and came into force with effect from 12th Oct, 2005 and the Act is basically aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in the working of the Government. Nagaland state was not lacking behind as far as the implementation of the Right to Information(RTI) Act, 2005 with the rest of the country as Nagaland Information Commission was constituted on 14th March 2006 headed by Shri. P. Talitemjen Ao IAS (Rtd chief secretary to the Govt. of Nagaland). In the year 2015 Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) in collaboration with Nagaland Information Commission has done a study on the use of RTI across the state and its impact in Nagaland for the last ten(10) years. The study was not intensive, however, NVCO did it by way of conducting awareness campaign, meeting & interview in almost all the districts in Nagaland covering colleges, district administration, civil societies, public organisations, women organisations, churches, etc, and also following the media reports as to how other organisations were contributing a role in promoting the RTI Act in the state by way of filing RTI applications, fighting against the illegality and short coming of procedures based on information/documents obtained through RTI and had initiated by way of filing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Gauhati High Court and even to the Apex Court in the country.

In course of the study the Organisation came across that several individual and organisation were filing RTI application just for the sake of filing as they do not read and study the information obtained through the powerful Act. The awareness level in the district headquarters is still low but it is very low in villages. Awareness is still lacking and it is more important in rural areas where every citizen must have the basic knowledge of the RTI Act and RTI is require in rural areas where more disclosure is require in various schemes/projects meant for villagers especially the citizen of below poverty line (BPL). We came across the maximum misused of funds in MNREGA, Public Distribution System (PDS), etc. and therefore, the citizen must learn RTI so that transparency and accountability can be questioned by obtaining information through RTI. We also came across that certain village authorities had fined their citizens for filing RTI application without consulting village authorities and this is happening due to lack of awareness amongst the citizens.

NVCO appreciate the government departments for the maintenance of records or official documents much better with the implementation of the RTI Act in the state. But when it come to the level of corrupt practices especially in public sectors we did not see any improvement rather it is becoming worsen especially the amount of money spent during State General Assembly Election. We don’t see much of improvement in public infrastructural developmental works and had detected so much of illegality in spending public funds in not following the norms and procedures including illegal deduction of certain percentages in the name of ‘commission’.
The study of the use of RTI by the citizens and its impact concentrated more on success stories and the misuse of RTI as well. There are good number of success stories to the extent had there RTI Act not been implemented in the state a good number of young bright intelligent man and woman may become depressed in life and may allowed to exploit their precious talents. There are instances of misusing the RTI Act by the applicants and public authorities as well such as negotiation with money is one way of withdrawing the RTI application, some applicants were filing RTI just to extract money from public authorities, public authority attempted to bribe the applicant, use RTI to harass the public authorities or certain department, offered huge sum of hard cash to applicant where applicant refused, public authority manipulate public documents while furnishing to the applicant.
The government had conducted several training for government employees especially the PIOs and APIOs but least bother to take any initiative to create awareness for the general public. Still then many PIOs and APIOs both at the secretariat level and directorate level were not been trained. Still many PIOs and APIOs don’t encourage the applicants rather they still have negative attitude towards the RTI applicant or the RTI Activists and many of them take advantage of the one month period although the information can be furnish within a few days time. Delaying of furnishing the required information is affecting the applicant where he/she is seeking a stay order from the courts especially in the issue of awarding work order in the contract works without following certain required norms. The maximum RTI applications filed in various departments may be related to recruitment of jobs in public sector(backdoor appointments), contract works, and so on.

During the Week-long celebration of RTI Week, Chief Information Commissioner, Nagaland, I. Meyionen Jamir alleged misuse of RTI in the state, used for personal gain and it has become a lucrative business and he even said that RTI black mailers threaten the departments with ‘exposure’ and thereby extorting money to the tune of several lakhs and again he contradict himself by appealing the people to make use of RTI to ‘expose’ the wrongdoers in the Government departments. NVCO said that Jamir’s statement must be true but it has also hurts the sentiment of reasonable RTI applicants/activists and seriously demean the moral of the so called – ‘honest RTI activists’ as we have many success stories where with the help of RTI the applicants/activists could bring out huge number of backdoor appointments, misuse of public funds, nepotism, various schemes meant for rural people and BPL, favouritism, fraudulent drawal of public funds, not following the norms/rules/laws, various indulgence of corruption on the function of the Government, etc. And we can’t afford to discourage the reasonable RTI groups/applicants/activists at this juncture where rate of corruption is high in the state. NVCO would advise the department to take legal action upon any RTI applicant/activist found misusing RTI. As per RTI Act it is the duty of the PIO/APIO to furnish all demanded documents/information within the time framed and the departments are not to worry about RTI black mailers threaten for exposure. In case of any RTI group/applicant demanded/extorting money taking advantage of RTI application then the department can even lodged an FIR and immediately arrest them/him/her. However, if the department felt threatening for exposure then the department is not clean and transparent in their functions.

During the Week-long celebration RTI Week here at the state capital NVCO Shri. Kezhokhoto Savi said that – “Information is Power” and with help of Right to Information Act, 2005, citizens can bring a positive change in the society with an appeal that every citizen must participate in the built of democracy by promoting RTI in one’s own capacity with the strong believe that the object of RTI is achieved.