No “fear and paralysis”, just ordinary Indians
keeping democracy alive: January 2020 update from the Use RTI Demand
Accountability campaign
We are in an extended crisis of democracy but
with peoples’ resistance to exclusionary and divisive legislative decisions
building across the country there is renewed vigor in the questions we ask, the
information we seek and the action we demand. The Use RTI, Demand
Accountability campaign is in its fifth month and we are building a nationally
coordinated effort towards pursuing transparency and accountability across a
range of issues where the government is acting without any public scrutiny and
with questionable claims to serving public interest. For more details on the
campaign and previous press releases, please visit: https://rtilagaocampaign.home.blog/
At a time when the Chief Justice of India is making
ill-informed statements about the RTI causing “fear and paralysis” in the
government machinery and offering dangerous suggestions to curtail its use,
this campaign aims to demonstrate how the rigour of demanding transparency
through RTI builds the very foundations of our democracy. In this update, we
share the details of six cases where the Use RTI, Demand Accountability
campaign has filed questions.
- NRC and CAA: The Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of
Citizens is being passionately debated across the country today. Fueling
some of this debate is also a huge amount of confusion on the authenticity
of official statements and their chronology. At a time like this it is
crucial to know who the Government of India consulted before finalizing
the text of the Bill and what the nature of discussions that emerged in
the consultations were. RTIs can give us answers to these questions and
also become critical to constructing a credible timeline of statements.
The Pre-Legislative Policy of the Government of India itself mandates that
Government undergo a transparent consultative process with citizens and
other organizations, and record the suggestions received, before bringing
any Bill to Cabinet. RTIs have been filed by Aruna Roy of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti
Sangathan demanding copies of all the minutes of inter-ministerial,
intra-ministerial meetings, public consultations held by the Minister of
Home Affairs, Govt. of India, and recommendations relating to the
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that it received and hence recorded.
Details about the the department/authority responsible for preparing and
maintaining the National Population Register (NPR) and the National
Register of Citizens; file notings, minutes, discussions, correspondences
regarding the link between the NPR and Census have also been sought.
2.
Delhi University syllabi revision: On July 16 2019, while a meeting of the
University’s Council to revise the syllabi of some departments including
english was underway, ABVP protesters stormed the building of the VC. A letter
signed by various Members of the Rajya Sabha raised this issue with the Prime
Minister and stated that this forced entry was aimed at intimidating professors
of certain departments and “coerce them into making certain changes in their
syllabus”. This incident came after a series of back and forths between the
departmental Committee of Courses and Faculty of Arts Committee (both
committees constituted by academics) and the academic council on syllabus
revisions. The english syllabus was sent back with the most number of revisions
including removing texts that were too “controversial”. After the incident, in
a rare move, the academic council constituted an “oversight committee” (with no
statutory authority) for reviewing the english syllabus in particular, which
sent back the syllabus with a further list of suggestions. As things stand
today, the english syllabus has only been approved for the first semester of
the 2019-20 academic year. RTIs have been filed with Delhi University asking
for details of procedures on modification of syllabi, minutes of meetings of
the academic council, minutes of meetings of the oversight committee and
reasons for delay in approval of english syllabus for the second semester with
classes set to resume in a matter of days.
3.
Agriculture: There have been news reports about the government’s plan to transfer fertiliser
subsidies directly to farmers’ accounts as opposed to the current system of
giving subsidies to fertiliser companies. In fact, as recently as 4th December
2019 the Fertiliser Minister Sadananda Gowda speaking at an event organised by
the industry body Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) said, “As far as change in the urea policy is
concerned, we are open to suggestions. It can be NBS for urea or direct subsidy
to the farmers account with decontrol of fertilizer sector. These are some of
the alternatives which are under discussion”. However, in response to an
RTI query requesting information on DBT of fertiliser subsidy, the Department
of Fertilisers failed to provide a meaningful response and the first appeal has
been filed. This shows the two-faced nature of the ‘suit-boot ki sarkaar’
where, on the one hand, the minister goes to the industry to take suggestions
and, on the other hand, the ministry does not give information to ordinary
individuals even when they are entitled to it.
4.
Mining: Considering the public outcry against pollution, particularly in
the national capital, RTIs were filed by Environics Trust to the Central
Pollution Control Board to know about steps taken by the Board to measure and
regulate air, water and sound pollution caused by mining. Coal generation
capacity is set to increase by nearly 300% by 2030; going by the proposed list
of power plant projects. The adverse impact this increase will have on CO2 emissions, and air and water pollution is undeniable. In such a
context the role of the CPCB in enforcing standards of pollution control on
coal mining leases is critical. Questions have been asked to understand how
many mining lease holders have been hauled up for non compliance with pollution
regulation norms.
5.
Committee on Data Governance Framework: The Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology (MeitY) constituted a Committee of Experts to deliberate on a Data
Governance Framework for India. Two separate RTIs, one by a member of NCPRI and
another by the Executive Trustee of Internet Freedom Foundation, were filed
requesting for information on:
a.
Formation of this committee - like minutes of the meetings where
the formation of this committee was discussed and the criteria to select the
members of the committee. In response to one RTI, MeitY has given a very vague
response saying, “Diverse set of people with relevant backgrounds who can
add to the area of discussion”. In response to the other RTI it has
blatantly held that no such information is available and even disposed off the
first appeal.
b.
Operation of this committee - like the number of meetings the committee
has conducted, minutes of these meetings, external persons who have
participated in the meetings and stakeholders who have been consulted. To this,
MietY’s brazen response has been to claim that it does not maintain such
information. This is a violation of simple administrative procedures that any
government process must follow. Ironically, the Minister who presides over
MietY, Ravi Shankar Prasad, is also the Minister of Law and Justice, which is
expected to administer justice in India. What justice can be expected from such
a government is out in the open for all to see.
6.
Stressed assets: Indian banks' Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) ratio is likely
to rise, the RBI said in its half-yearly Financial Stability Report (FSR)
released on Dec 27, 2019. This is despite the GNPA falling for the first time
in seven years in March 2019 “primarily due to changes in the macroeconomic
scenario, a marginal increase in slippages, and the denominator effect of
declining credit growth”. In June 2019, RBI issued Prudential Framework for
Resolution of Stressed Assets. Under this framework, before any bank asset
(loan account) becomes an NPA, the incipient stress in such an account needs to
be recognized as Special Mention Account and related prudential framework needs
to be followed by banks. However, mechanisms in place to ensure compliance by
banks is unclear. The RTIs seek to understand the processes in place to ensure
fidelity of data obtained by RBI from banks, processes in place to ensure
fidelity of compliance of prudential framework, and strength of supervisory
function of RBI to address the challenges with compliance of its
regulations.
We will continue to file and track responses to
these RTIs and appeals through this campaign over the next several months and
will periodically publish the status of key RTIs through such press releases.
We will also post a tracker and the actual RTIs and responses on a website in
the coming month so that citizens and groups can collectively monitor and share
the details of their RTIs with us.
For more information please contact Asmi (9650346518), Anindita (9871832323),
Rakshita (9818838588), Nachiket (9810498029)
(On
behalf of the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information)
No comments:
Post a Comment