Why
“PEET(H)A Yojana” is another Farce
of Nabin Patnaik Government and
designed to cheat the people of Odisha ?
The people of Odisha should
not be swayed away by these
so-called schemes
PEETA
( not PEETHA) , abbreviation of People’s Empowerment Enabling Transparency and accountability of Odisha initiative, a
scheme floated by
Sri Nabin Patnaik Chief Minister, Odisha 0n 3.12.18 has
the mandate , as explained by
Chief Minister in a Press Conference ,
to enforce transparency
and accountability in the
implementation of Govt, progarmme. But if
you look at design of the programme in
practice, it is seen that it is a Govt.
awareness programme organized by the officials to sensitize
the people about Govt.
scheme and programme. This programme is also used as
day for distribution of pension and other benefits to the beneficiaries under various
schemes. There is neither discussion of
transparency nor system of accountability of the officials. Rather the women Groups are seen asked to come to this programme with delicious desi
cakes .
In
fact, RTI Act (Right to Information Act, 2005) is a law enacted in 2005 has the
mandate to enforce transparency and accountability in the functioning of the
administration in the country. This has
not only empowered the
common people to access the information held by the public authorities but
cast responsibility on the Public
Authorities to proactively disseminate
information to the citizens ( section 4
(1b) of the RTI Act). This is one of
the best laws ever enacted since independence. More the information is disseminated; transparency in
the administration will be enforced which
will result in strengthening
democracy and bridging the
gap between the people and the administration. This law is
perceived as paradigm shift from
secretive colonial administration
to a transparent, accountable governance
system in the country.
But
astonishingly, from very beginning Nabin Patnaik Govt. which claims a transparent Govt.
has conspired to destroy
this law in Odisha through making anti-people Odisha RTI Rules and
destroying system of suo moto
disclosure of information. Nobody
will find a single hoarding on RTI in any part of the state. There is no single
display board on RTI in front of
any office of the state. Unwritten instruction has been
issued from Chief Minister’s office not to provide important information to
the citizens under RTI Act. The common people ,
Activists who are using RTI
to fight out corruption are
subject to harassment , mental torture,
false cases lodged
against them.
Similarly
, the provision of transparency and accountability in other progressive laws are
also not implemented in the state . For example, under Operational Guideline
of MGNREGA ( Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ) ( Chapter-10) , all information relating to
NREGS and work will be proactively disclosed
under section 4(1b) of the RTI
Act. As per sechedule -1 ( point no. 15,16,17 ) and Rules 30(3) of Odisha Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, all the information relating to Muster Roll of work, Bill and Vouchures and
other related documents must be put in public domain in Gram Panchayat and Block office for
public inspection. But though 12 years
passed , not a single information is available
in block and Panchayat office
for public inspection.
Whenever anybody asks for
inspection of any document, they
are simply denied by the
corrupt officials and asked to file RTI
to get the information.
Secondly,
there is also in-built mechanism in National food security Act,2013 to enforce
transparency in PDS, ICDS and Mid-Day-Meal programme. As per
section 27 of the NFS Act, All PDS
related records shall be placed in the public domain and kept open
for inspection to the public.
Similarly, section 29 of the Act
requires Gram Panchayat to conduct periodic social audit of all the
food security schemes under the
Act. But astonishingly, 4 years has
passed, the State Government has miserably
failed to frames Rules for implementation of these provisions of the
Act.
This
is sorry state of affairs of self-claimed transparent Govt. of Nabin
Patnaik. Everywhere, transparency has
been blocked. No accountability on Govt.
officials is fixed to carry out their
work. There is no provision of time-bound hearing and disposal of complaints
and petitions of the common people by the official in the state.
If
the Govt. is genuinely interested
to enforce transparency in implementation of schmes
and delivery of benefits to the
people, all information relating it must
be proactively placed in public
domain for inspection by the public at large in every Gram Panchayat and block office.
Pradip Pradhan
RTI Activist
M-993784382
Date-1.1.19
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