Sonia prescribes Bihar model

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Sonia prescribes Bihar model :: Asks Congress Chief Ministers To Follow Nitish Govt’s Call Centre Route

as reported by Manoj Mitta | TNN

New Delhi: Taking a non-partisan approach to governance, Sonia Gandhi has called upon Congress chief ministers to adopt the Bihar model of making RTI more accessible to the poor and illiterate. But the UPA government seems to fear that it would expose itself to greater accountability if it subsidised the proposed RTI call centre at the Centre.

Despite giving an in-principle clearance to the call centre, the department of personnel and training (DOPT), the nodal agency for RTI, is unsure whether it should, following the Bihar model set up in early 2007, bear the cost of converting a phone call into an RTI application.

Minister for Personnel Prithviraj Chavan told TOI that what the Centre was drawing from the Bihar model was the concept of e-filing of RTI applications over the telephone. “We have not yet taken a call on whether the applicant should be spared the cost of the call centre,” he said.

If the government decides to pass the cost of the call centre to the applicant, then the charge he would have to bear, besides the regular fee of Rs 10 per RTI application, is estimated to be Rs 35. Similarly, for the two layers of appeal, which normally do not entail any fee, the RTI applicant would have to pay Rs 35 as the call centre charge for each appeal. Thus, for taking the call centre route, the amount he would end up paying for the entire RTI process is Rs 115 instead of the usual Rs 10.

On the other hand, if the government bears the cost of the call centre, all that it would levy through the telephone bill is the RTI fee of Rs 10 and the regular call charge. This option would be in tune with the letter Sonia Gandhi wrote on April 17 to Congress chief ministers commending the Bihar
model to them “for taking the RTI Act to the doorstep of poor and illiterate masses through the use of technology.”

Doesn’t the non-subsidised option involving over a 10-fold increase in the charges defeat the call centre’s object of taking RTI to the poor and illiterate? Chavan said if the call centre route worked out to be more expensive, the citizen had the option of sending his RTI application by post. “Cost is not a major issue — whether for the government or for the applicant,” he added.

The difference in perception between Sonia and Chavan is obvious. While Chavan sees the call centre essentially as a convenient mode of filing RTI applications, the UPA chairman took it as a breakthrough for empowering the masses to enforce accountability.

Whatever choice the DOPT finally makes on the question of subsidy, the call centre is likely to be run on the lines of the Bihar model in the first year. This is because UNDP is funding it as an e-governance project developed by the department of information technology. UNDP has agreed to provide Rs 2.5 crore for setting up the infrastructure in Gurgaon.

Even an illiterate person will be able to file an RTI application as he just has to say, over the phone, what he wishes to know
The call centre executive will draft the application on the basis of the taped phone call

No need to make a DD or postal order for depositing fee as it will be charged in the phone bill


Welcome

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Bihar becoming role model for states: Nitish
11 Aug 2008, 1751 hrs IST,PTI

PATNA: Enthused by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's reported missive to the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states to adopt the ‘Bihar model’ for RTI call centres, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asserted that Bihar was gradually becoming ‘role model’ for the states because of his government's firm resolve to ensure ‘good governance’.

“I express my gratitude for the acknowledgement of the system adopted by us to make information accessible to the poor and illiterate,” Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of his favourite ‘janata darbar programme’ when his attention was drawn to reported recent missive of Sonia Gandhi to her party's chief ministers.

Striking a non-partisan approach to governance, the UPA chief has called upon Congress chief ministers to adopt the model of an RTI call centre run by Bihar's NDA government to make information more accessible to the poor and illiterate.

The chief minister revealed that several states had approached the Bihar government seeking to know the system adopted by it to reach information under the Rights to Information Act.

‘In fact, we have opened up a jankari kendra (information centre) to give information to the officials of other states about the system we adopted here,” Kumar said.

Chief Minister said not only in the RTI, but also his initiatives for raising special auxiliary police (SAP) for tackling law and order following dearth of required central forces, was earlier appreciated by the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

Bihar becoming role model for states: Nitish-Patna-Cities-The Times of India

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More power to the people
as reported in Times of India, 19 Sep, 2008, AGENCIES

What could a labourer running from pillar to post for his ration card, a student waiting eagerly for his passport, a housewife struggling without water supply or a senior citizen suffering due to pollution caused by an unauthorised factory near his residence have in common? The Right to Information (RTI) Act — the salvation for these diverse problems.

A notable achievement of the UPA government along with the rural employment guarantee scheme, this key to information has empowered the aam aadmi to fight the formidable fortress of secrecy that enabled unscrupulous babus to shirk work and breed corruption.

RTI is no magic that can make corruption vanish in a jiffy, but it has put the fear of scrutiny firmly in the minds of government employees. Gone is the air of confidence that enabled the corrupt in the government to demand ‘speed money’ openly without any apprehension of being caught. The experience till now suggests that most government departments attempt to clear pending work when they are questioned and responsibility is fixed.

Depending on how we look at it, it is either a glass half full or half empty. However, the road ahead seems exciting. Imagine RTI being just a phone call away, cutting out the massive paperwork that you need to go through now.

That would make information available even to those who cannot do the running around – senior citizens, the disabled and those who do not have the time to pursue a RTI query through existing procedures. Bihar has shown the way by setting up a call centre for registration of RTI queries. This obviates the need for elaborate paperwork and cumbersome legwork which makes life difficult for information seekers.

While the central government is not averse to the idea of adopting the call centre model to register RTI queries, discussions over costs have pushed the issue to the backburner. Some sections of the government feel that users should bear the cost of the proposed system.

Activists, however, are opposing this idea since it would push up the cost of an RTI query 12 times to Rs 120, deterring potential users most of whom are from the poorer sections.'

“The government should bear the cost of operating such call centres. Showing political will to back RTI, more allocation should be made to appoint more information officers as well. Due to budget constraints and lack of additional posts to handle RTI work, the system is getting stretched.

Additional resource should be provided immediately,” feels RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal who won the Magsaysay award in 2006 for his work in this segment. “The commissioners who are appointed by the government for handling RTI work should be committed to transparency.

These posts should not be treated as post-retirement benefits for bureaucrats who are interested in staying close to the corridors of power,” he told ET.

Most activists acknowledge the role of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in putting the RTI Act on track, but are skeptical about the commitment of political leaders. If transparency is ensured, corruption can be curbed to a large extent and the poorest of the poor would benefit, they argue.

While enactment of the law is a landmark in itself there are apprehensions over vested interests misusing RTI. Corporates, for example, should not manipulate RTI the way public interest litigation was misused, activists feel.

Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah says progress made towards spreading the RTI awareness has been better than expected, but there are larger areas of the country where the RTI Act has not been fully effective.

The recent appointment of three additional information commissioners at the CIC office would help in clearing the backlog of appeals pending before it, he added.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suggested that all government information, especially data, should be put on the public domain except in the case of strategic areas like defence. This will make RTI queries unnecessary in a large number of cases.

While opinion of some top leaders certainly favours transparency, it has to be seen if the bureaucracy gives up its resistance to openness and politicians demonstrate the will to speed up empowerment of the common man.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/More_power_to_the_people/articleshow/3500764.cms