Visting Hardoi, Sitapur, Unnao, Chandauli, Varanasi and Sultanpur during the ongoing 1^st to 15^th July, 2006, RTI campaign, which has now become popular as ‘Use RTI : Don’t Pay Bribe’ national campaign, one finds that the officials are quite reluctant to see the Right to Information Act, 2005, implemented in its true spirit. Sandeep Pandey reports from UP.

The officials have taken the minimum required steps to ensure that they are not held guilty of violating the law but have not done enough to make it easy for the common person to use this law. For example, even if the Public Information Officers are appointed in different departments, the people do not know who they are. A few departments have not even appointed their PIOs. There is no easy mechanism in place to submit the Rs. 10 fees with RTI applications.

The District Development Officer of Sitapur, Makhan Lal Gupta, was the only official in six districts who is issuing receipts for the fees and accepting applications easily. The CDO, Tahir Iqbal, who was officiating as DM on July 4, was requested to make a similar arrangement in other departments too. He has also issued instructions to various departments to identify their PIOs publicly.

Until the City Magistrate of Unnao, Dr. Akhilesh Mishra, revealed to the RTI activists on July 5 that a clerk Vijay Pal in the ADM office had a form which could be filled to access information under the law by paying a fee of Rs. 10 in cash, people did not know that such an arrangement existed. He proudly informed that 29 applications had been filed since the law came into being on 13th October, 2005 and all were disposed. However, chances are that not many people beyond the 29 fortunate ones knew that the district administration had made arrangements for people to use RTI Act.

On 29th June when the Hardoi DM K. Ram Mohan Rao summoned his City Magistrate, the PIO at district headquarters, to find out how many applications had been filed so far under the Act, he was told that nobody had come to do so so far. On July 1 when the RTI activists went to file their first application to the City Magistrate’s office, the clerk there refused to accept the application saying that there was no arrangement to accept the fees. So, this was the truth behind nobody coming to file any application! Till July 3rd no arrangement was made. It was only when a complaint was registered with the DM second time and a form prepared by the activists shown to him, lower portion of which could be used as a receipt, he instructed the City Magistrate to use the form and put a system in place. From 4th July application begun to be accepted with Rs. 10 cash fee.

In Chandauli, even though the DDO had advertised that RTI was in place and applications could be submitted to him, officials were asking people to submit their fee by a Chalan in the Treasury. Now, the Chalan was required to the approved by the official who was to receive the application. Some officials said that they would approve the Chalan only after taking a look at the RTI application. Forms from the Treasury, normally available for free disappeared and resurfaced in the open market for a price of Rs. 5. The various government offices in Chandauli are located quite apart from each other. Often officials are found missing from their desks. People were spending lot of time running around form one office to another trying to submit their RTI applications. On July 6 the DM Muktesh Mohan Mishra was requested to put in place a system so that Rs. 10 cash fee could be accepted with a RTI application on the pattern of DDO Sitapur or ADM Unnao. He was also requested to make the list of PIOs in various departments public.

In Varanasi till July 6 the Police department was claiming that it was not covered under the law. On July 7 the SSP, Ashutosh Pandey informed the activists that the SP (Rural Area) Lalit Kumar Singh was the PIO in his department and issued a press release to the same effect. The ADM (Protocol), Naresh Chandra Srivastava did not have a complete list of PIOs in the District. He had written letters, after the people’s campaign began, to various departments to find out who their PIO was. Till July 7 he had received names of PIOs from 9 departments. The young DM Rajiv Aggarwal took interest in the campaign and decided to get receipts printed so that Rs. 10 fee could accepted as cash along with applications. He was also requested to get boards installed outside the offices of PIOs saying that RTI applications were accepted there.

In Sultanpur the DM Veena Kumari Meena said on July 8 that she was providing all the information even without charging the Rs. 10 fee. She was requested to put into place a mechanism so that Rs. 10 fee was accepted with every RTI application so that the applicant would have a right to appeal in case he/she did not receive the desired information within the stipulated period of one month.

The officials are obviously not very happy with the thought of having to put into place a system which is definitely going to increase their load but will also take away from them the privilege of keeping all the information to themselves. They get irritated when people challenge what had been their prerogative for long. The officials are harassed while the people are jubiliant. For the people it is their chance to move a step closer to realize their dream of democracy of the people, for the people and by the people.

Upon visiting Deoria, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Faizabad, Mau and Kushinagar in the second round during the 1st to 15th July, 2006 national campaign ‘Don’t Pay Bribe : Use RTI,’ the experiences were similar to those of districts visited during the first round – Hardoi, Sitapur, Unnao, Chandauli, Varanasi and Sultanpur. People don’t know who the Public Informations Officers are in various departments, PIOs don’t wish to identify themselves and there is mush confusion about how to accept the Rs. 10 fee with every RTI application. The officials are trying to find every excuse to turn people away from their offices. People are being made to run from one office to another.

In Deoria no application had been accepted so far since the Act has come into being nine months ago. After speaking to the CDO, J.B. Singh, who was officiating as DM on 10th July, some applications begun to be accepted on Treasury Chalan. The officials of education department, the Basic Shiksha Adhikari and District Inspector of Schools were missing from their offices during the entire campaign period as most of the applications pertained to this department.

Gorakhpur was one of the best organized camps. Inspite of the DM Dr. Hari Om having come to inaugurate the camp on 1st July, except for the Gorakhpur Development Authority and Nagar Nigam, no department is accepting the cash fees with applications. Police department refuses to entertain any RTI application. One PWD employee was able to get his Rs. 16,000 pending health care expenses by applying under RTI during this period.

In Moradabad most people had not even heard of RTI or were confusing it with Lokvani, a computer programme through which people can file their complaints directly to the DM. The awareness among people about RTI in eastern UP seems to be better than western UP. It took more than two months for an activist to obtain the details of a Community Health Centre in Bilari situated in this district by applying under RTI. The young DM Pandhari Yadav has agreed to look into the issue of institutionalizing a mechanism to accept applications under RTI.

Faizabad was the most successful camp in terms of every application that was prepared was accepted by an official clerk stationed at the camp site itself. This, of course, would not have been possible without the cooperation of the dynamic DM Amod Kumar, who also happens to be the brain behind the Lokvani innovation, which he initiated when he was the DM at Sitapur. However, Amod Kumar himself wasn’t sure whether after the camp was over on 15th July, applications would be accepted in the departments by the respective PIOs.

In Mau too not a single application had been accepted before this campaign. The DM P. Guru Prasad was still finalizing his list of PIOs in various departments when the activists met him on 14th July. Most of the officials were pretending ignorance about the Act.

Kushinagar was the only district among the twelve visited where the official receipt on Treasury Form No. 385 was being issued to individual applicants by the District Development Officer Ravi Kumar. However, except for him no other official was entertaining RTI applications. The DM Shashi Bhushan Lal Sushil was requested to put into place a similar system as his DDO was following in other departments too for acceptance of RTI applications.

From among the districts visited in the first round, inspite of the assurances of the officials, applicants continue to be turned away by ADM offices in Unnao, Chandauli and Varanasi. Hardoi, Sitapur and Sultanpur seem to be doing comparatively better but applicants in Sultanpur have to pay the Rs. 10 fees by Chalan.

Meanwhile in Lucknow people who have to file their applications with a PIO whose office is located inside the Secretariat buildings are having a tough time getting inside these buildings because it requires a pass based on the approval of the concerned official before one can enter these buildings. The DG police office which had initially torn 3 RTI applications saying that they were not covered by the law has now begun accepting applications. Slowly the reality of the law is sinking into the head of the officials.

The achievement of the 15 days national campaign seems to be a heightened awareness among the common people, in at least the 14 districts in which camps were set up in UP, and beginning of some process, in real or pretense, by the district level officials to set into place a system to follow this very important law. The enthusiasm seems to be infectious with the campaign spreading to other districts. Camps are already planned in Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Naugarh, Chandauli. The Jaunpur DM Anurag Yadav is currently on bicycle for 21 continuous days 4 hours a day at each Block in his district to raise awareness among people about RTI among other things. The successes, though few, accomplished during the 1st to 15th July campaign are enough to keep the momentum among the people to keep pushing for the implementation of the Act. It remains to be seen how long the officials will be able to avoid escaping implementation of the law.

Sandeep Pandey, A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P., e-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com

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