Press Release, january 2, 2020
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 vigour 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 unsubstantiated comments 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 seven 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Appointment of Information Commissioners: On 15th February 2019, the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgement in the PIL regarding non-appointment of information commissioners by the central and state governments and the lack of transparency in the appointment process. In the judgement, the Supreme Court observed that the right to information is a constitutional right and directed the central and state governments to fill vacancies in the information commissions in a transparent and time bound manner. As part of the campaign, RTI applications have been filed with various state governments, seeking details of steps taken to fill vacancies in information commissions, in compliance with the judgement of the Supreme Court.
Even as the RTI law enters its fifteenth year, the attacks on RTI users seeking transparency has not abated. Last month, Abhimanyu Panda, well known RTI activist and leader of the anti-liquor movement was fatally shot outside his house in Kandhamal district, Odisha. Abhimanyu had previously used the RTI Act on multiple occasions to successfully exposed cases of corruption and misappropriation of funds in Kandhamal and surrounding districts. More recently, Abhimanyu has filed over 50 RTI applications to 50 gram panchayats in 4 blocks in Kandhamal district to unearth corruption in the PDS of rice and was attacked fatally as a result of the information sought. Abhimanyu’s death is yet another urgent reminder for the need for a strong whistleblower protection law. In the absence of any government response, The Odisha Soochna Adhikar Abhiyan, a group of activists working on Right to Information and government accountability and transparency, filed multiple RTI applications last month seeking the same information as Abhimanyu. Once the RTIs are answered, all the information Abhimanyu was originally seeking will be widely publicized and his pursuit for transparency will not go in vain.
Two more networks- Lokmanch and the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW) have also joined the Use RTI, Demand Accountability Campaign and will be filing RTIs every month. 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)
Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey, Rakesh Dubbudu, Pradip Pradhan, Venkatesh Nayak
(On behalf of the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information)
Press Release, December 5, 2019
Denials and Revelations: 375 applications filed since August 2019 as part of the Use RTI, Demand Accountability Campaign
Following the regressive amendments to the Right to Information Act in Parliament, the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information in collaboration with other peoples’ collectives launched the “Use RTI, Demand Accountability” campaign on August 1st of 2019. The objective of the campaign is to protect the RTI through its increased usage and resist any attempt to weaken one of the most radical freedom of information legislations in the world. By coordinating the filing of RTIs at different locations across the country and collectively tracking government responses, the UseRTI campaign will give strength and support to lakhs of RTI applicants in villages, towns and districts across India. The collective filing of applications on a range of issues will counter the rhetoric of this government that all publicly relevant information is already being proactively disclosed and the need for the RTI is diminishing. An excellent example of the power of the RTI is the electoral bonds story recently published in the media that provides a detailed account of how the Finance Ministry overturned the disapproval of the RBI and ignored objections of the Election Commission of India before making funding to political parties completely opaque, dealing a serious blow to democracy in this country. We all would have continued to remain in the dark had it not been for the release of file notings and other documents obtained through RTI applications that were relentlessly pursued by transparency activists. Above all else, the objective of this campaign is to continue to collectively use the RTI to demand greater transparency and accountability in government functioning and the implementation of its programs that affects the lives of lakhs of Indians. RTI users and citizen campaigns have been filing, and will continue to file RTIs on pressing issues of public interest on the 1st of every month.
375 RTIs have been filed since the campaign was launched in August. The range of questions asked include information on district mining funds, incidents of mob lynching, Aadhaar and voter ID linkage, Kathua rape case, Aadhaar based exclusions in the National Food Security Act, pre-legislative consultation before major policies, university course syllabi development, judicial appointments, Ujjwala yojana amongst many others.
We will highlight some significant cases in our pursuit of facts and the truth through filing RTIs in the first week of every month through a press release:
1. Aadhaar and welfare: A set of RTIs were filed by Rethink Adhaar[1] to track the modalities of its widening scope and to verify the claims UIDAI makes on the impact of Aadhar on reducing corruption. However, information on which corporations who used to have the license to use Aadhar based e-KYC services, had their licenses cancelled was denied. The basis of that denial was the need for the Government to protect the commercial confidence of these corporations. To challenge the UIDAI’s claim that Aadhaar has reduced leakages in PDS and other welfare programs, another RTI asking for exact numbers of fake or duplicate ration cards, Jan Dhan accounts and PAN cards was filed. The UIDAI and its representatives have quoted these figures at various forums including in the Supreme Court when the linking of Aadhaar to welfare was challenged. However, the UIDAI deflected and responded by simply stating that this information was in the domain of various implementing agencies and ministries.
Of 42 hunger related deaths since 2017, 25 have been linked to Aadhaar where people with ration cards were unable to access the PDS because of Aadhaar authentication failures amongst other issues[2]. Although, the Supreme Court in its Aadhaar judgment has clearly stated that no beneficiaries should be deprived of their rightful entitlement for want of Aadhaar, large scale exclusions have been reported in Rajasthan and Odisha. To understand the full scale of the problem, an RTI was filed by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, with the Department of Food and Public Distribution asking for a month-wise count of the number of ration cards on which authentication was tried at least once during the month but the beneficiary did not receive her entitlement for the year 2018-19. While the department has started publishing useful reports on beneficiaries who were given their entitlements through a “manual override” inspite of failure in biometric authentication, but information on how many are denied entitlements because of failed transactions by Aadhaar or non-Aadhaar means “is not available and maintained”. The Government maintains no records, and therefore no responsibility, for the numbers of beneficiaries whose biometric authentication failed and for whom no “manual override” was initiated, depriving them of their most basic legal entitlement to food security.
2. NREGA: The National Rural Employment Guarantee has regularly come under attack with covert and overt attempts by the government to undermine it. Freezing budget allocation and delayed payment of wages to crores of workers have been the most dominant causes of the work force losing faith on NREGA. After two media reports stated that MoRD was considering proposals from states asking for permission to use machines (banned under the law), to break the silence of the ministry, an RTI was filed by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha[3]. The ministry has now gone on record to say that “no requests to relax the MGNREGA rules on the use of machinery has been received in the ministry from the state governments of AP, Karnataka and MP”. Second, the government claims that from 2017-18 onwards, 90 percent of the NREGA wage payments have been made on time, i.e., within 15 days of completion of work. This is despite independent studies and researchers pointing out that this figure is closer to 30%. Another RTI was filed asking the ministry for the number of transactions in which payments of wages were made to workers beyond the statutory period of fifteen days. The Ministry’s response only directs the applicant towards an existing report which does not provide citizens the full extent of the delay i.e. from the date the worker completed his/her work, till the time he/she was paid. The RTI response clearly reveals that MoRD is willfully manipulating facts and figures to suppress the total quantum of delay that workers are facing in receiving their wages.
3. Hate crimes and lynchings: Data shows that of the spate of close to 250 incidents of hate crimes motivated by religious hatred, between 2009 and 2018, 90% have taken place since 2014[4]. In 2018, on the petition of activist Tehseen Poonawala, the Supreme Court issued directives to state governments to curb the “menace of mob lynching” by implementing preventive and remedial measures such as setting up fast track courts and special task forces, issue directives to police stations in “sensitive areas” and review incidents and related orders in periodic meetings. Despite these orders, lynching incidents have been reported in several states including the most recent case of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand. To hold state government and the administration accountable and assess the strength of the Prime Minister’s commitment to protect minorities in this country as stated in his May 26th acceptance speech, 350 RTIs were filed by young lawyers with the Centre for Equity Studies, with the District Collectors, DGPs and Chief Secretaries of five states- Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The responses received so far reveal that local administration has not responded with adequate seriousness. While some authorities have simply transferred the RTI to other departments, some have refused to provide any evidence of concrete steps taken to curb hate crimes such as minutes of meeting or even orders issued by the Director General of Police. Replies to the RTIs are still being received and we will continue to systematically track each response by district.
4. Mining: RTIs were filed by Environics Trust to access details on the number of mines, workers employed in mines, illegal mines, show cause notices issued to companies with mining leases for non-compliance of norms, forest land acquired for mining amongst other details. The RTIs exposed this Government’s utter disregard of the law and its responsibility to regulate and monitor mining activities in the country. RTI applications revealed that the Government does not collect information on even the total number of workers engaged in mines across the country. How will the Government regulate the welfare of mine workers and ensure that they work in conditions that are considered safe when they do not even know the number of mine workers in the country?. The Government responded to a question on an RTI application that it does not collate information on the number of illegal mines in the country. Whereas the same Government as of 2016-17 had reported that there are 96,089[5] illegal mines operating in the country in response to a Parliamentary question. The Justice Shah Committee had also shown the massive scale of illegalities in mining amounting to Rs 59,000 crores in its 2015 report The response also revealed that Government has no data on the number and location of closed mines.
5. Judiciary: There has been reason for the RTI community to celebrate when the Supreme Court declared that the office of the Chief Justice of India will come under the scope of the RTI and that transparency has no bearing on the independence of an institution. However the celebration must be tempered. RTI applications filed by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reform before the judgement came out, seeking information about complaints received against judges, action taken under the in-house mechanism and action taken thereafter by the Chief Justice of India, were faced with denial citing various provisos including the need to respect the privacy of the people concerned. Given the utter disregard of the Supreme Court in following principles of natural justice in dealing with extremely sensitive cases pertaining to sexual harassment against the Chief Justice of India, the institution’s growing determination to prevent public scrutiny over its functioning, even in matters beyond judicial appointments, is disturbing.
6. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): The RCEP has been a subject of much political discussion in the recent past. Only last month, India decided to walk out of the biggest potential regional trade partnership of the world. The RCEP could impact crores of farmers and manufacturers of the country, by changing their terms of trade and bargaining power in the market, in a fundamental sense. AnRTI application was filed by an associate of the School for Democracy, about the feedback given by stakeholders across the “nearly 100” consultations that the Government held across the country, the Government responded by saying that since the comments were “general” no records were maintained. On seeking access to the text which formed the basis of negotiations between India and other countries in the partnership, the information was denied on account of commercial interests having to be protected. The Government clearly felt obligated to protect trade secrets and commercial competitive advantage over sharing details of a deal that affects the livelihoods of crores of farmers to the farmers themselves.
In response to the national call to “file RTIs and demand accountability”, state level RTI campaign are also beginning to file RTIs at scale. The Odisha Soochna Adhikar Abhiyan conducted a campaign across the state, districts and blocks and filed 300 RTI applications on health related issues. Questions included information on rogi kalyan samitis, treatment provided to below poverty line individuals by private hospitals, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana amongst others. Groups and individuals in Odisha will file RTIs on the first of every month. 32 RTIs have been filed in Rajasthan, primarily from Bikaner, Barmer, Jaipur, Alwar, and Rajsamand districts. The RTIs cover issues of government misspending and corruption, police and defense department discrepancies, and inquiries into the denial of certain labour, agricultural, educational, women’s, and disability rights and entitlements.”
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)
[1] A non-partisan campaign concerned about the Unique Identification or Aadhaar project
[2] https://thewire.in/rights/of-42-hunger-related-deaths-since-2017-25-linked-to-aadhaar-issues
[3] A national platform of workers’ collectives, trade unions, organisations and individuals engaged in public action on NREGA
[4] https://time.com/5617161/india-religious-hate-crimes-modi/
[5] Lok Sabha Starred Question144 answered by the Union Minister of Mines, Government of India on 28.12.2017
Press Release, August 1, 2019
Police detains people wanting to submit petition to the Rashtrapati Bhawan
NCPRI launches Use RTI to Save RTI campaign
Today people who had gone to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to petition the President to appeal him to withhold assent to the #RTIAmendment Bill were detained by the police and taken to the Mandir Marg police station. Lakhs of people have petitioned the President asking him to withhold his assent using online platforms, sending emails to the President and via postcard campaigns and signatures collected through campaigns held on the ground. People had gathered at Rashtrapati Bhawan at Gate no. 38, which has a facility for receiving memorandums of the public, around noon to deliver the petitions. As people were reaching the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the police turned up in large numbers and detained all those who were present and took them in buses to Mandir Marg Police Station. None of the people who had gathered there, were allowed to submit their petitions at the Rashtrpati Bhawan secretariat. The police detained 66 people and many others were not allowed to reach the Rashtrapati Bhawan and were turned away.
Later the police allowed only 3 people to go the Rashtrapati Bhawan and deliver some of the petitions. Subsequently, the others were allowed to leave.
NCPRI co-convenors termed the detention and police preventing people from giving their petitions to the President as a serious attack on free speech and democracy.
NCPRI co-convenors Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey and former Chief Information Commissioner of the CIC addressed a press conference to launch the Use RTI to Save RTI campaign and also give updates on the various campaigns happening across the country to oppose the RTI amendments.
Under the Use RTI to Save RTI campaign on the 1st of every month RTI applications will be filed across the country in conjunction with social movements and peoples’ groups to seek information on key issues of public interest. On the 1st of August, nearly 100 questions through RTI applications have been filed seeking information on issues ranging from social security, defence procurement including rafale aircrafts, land acquisitions, ration, MGNREGA, Unnao rape case, functioning of the Lokpal, functioning of hospitals, deployment of teachers and many more.
RTI applications that have been prepared and filed can be accessed at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jypwzj7oMAzcg9QdGOIQhW217BxK79_1/view?usp=drivesdk
The Use RTI to Save RTI campaign was launched in multiple states today – Odisha, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Kerala. It will be taken up in other states in the coming days.
RTI applications will be filed on the 1st of every month and a portal where all the RTI applications and replies will be uploaded is being developed on righttoinformation.info where details of the campaign are also available.
Anjali Bharadwaj, Nikhil Dey and Venkatesh Nayak
(on behalf of the NCPRI)
9650346518, 9810273984, 9818838588
File RTI, Demand Accountability 