We're Left Waiting

For the recently passed Right To Information Bill - after a week. Meantime, a view from IE (link via India Uncut and Spontaneous Order). The distinction the writer makes between Duty to Publish (suo moto) and Duty to Furnish (on request) is a handy one and a nice tool with which to think about the whole thing. Noting that the Bill's emphasis is on the latter, the article says this

The sub-section ... which deals with the mandatory suo moto disclosure of information, includes functions and responsibility of the government organisations, rules, regulations governing its employees. But it has left out suo moto publishing of important items like public and utility contracts, disaster management projects and official travel expenses.

I would add a few more items left out - mundane things like the lists of public officials elected and otherwise, details (like addresses - physical and online, timings, etc) about all the public authorities that exist, what is the process to be followed by citizens to interact with them. All of the above starting at the level of each locality and going upwards.

The RTI Act seems to work in many developed democracies, not because of high penalties to bureaucrats or more transparent adjudication of denials, but because most of the information citizens would like to acquire is already available. A high quality democracy would hence make it incumbent on the state to make public all information which affects a citizen.

And how is this large amount of information to be made accessible to people? Put it online of course.

Though the RTI bill has come out, it is not available for viewing online or at departments. A DTP Act would have made it obligatory for the state to have put it up online and also made departments have a copy. Ironically, one may have to file a request for the RTI bill!

Internet penetration is low, true, but still, the information would be out there.

Will the Bill make a real difference? Are people ready to use it? 5-6 states already had their own Right to Information Bills in place, including Karnataka. The article notes a success story in the PDS system in Delhi. I'm sure there are more. The Airport Road-Koramangala Flyover nearby, though, is still in limbo. But if there were more information about this project in the public domain, maybe, just maybe, there would have been some pressure on the Government? At the very least, I would have the satisfaction of knowing what happened.