Right To Information (RTI) to curb Corruption
- as a Tool in the hands of the Citizen -

By Lairenjam Dhanamanjuri Devi *

Almost every person talks about corruption. People attribute every failure or problem to the corruption in machinery and leave at that. Unfortunately, India has the dubious distinction of being 20th most corrupt country in a list of 91 countries, in 2001.

Enforcing the accountability of the authorities has its roots in right to know. The transparency will automatically limit the abuse of discretion, and thus acts as the check on the corruption in any regime. Most notorious scams like distribution by the Union Minister for petroleum, of petrol pumps among the kith and kin instead of deserving unemployed youth.

Information about public distribution system, availability of sugar in ration shops, housing schemes, employment schemes, availability of land pattas (Title deed for the house-plot issued by the Government) and related rights will enlighten the eligible youth to agitate for them, which naturally prevents the misuse and wrongful distribution.

Similarly the displaced people should know when the irrigation project would be completed and what are the rehabilitation packages available to them are. The people have right to know the disastrous impact of contamination and environmental problems to avoid them or to prepare themselves for confronting them.

Corruption worsens socio-economic conditions and facilitates growth of anti-national movements or activities. Corruption acts as a regressive tax on industrial growth, especially for the small-scale industries that are major sources of employment in many developing countries. It also reduces revenue collections of the state. Consequently, the state's capacity to allocate substantial resources to basic services such as health and education is reduced.

Various corrupt practices, from petty bureaucratic corruption to big scams, directly facilitate anti-national activities. For instance, India's most wanted criminal, the mastermind behind the Mumbai serial bomb blast Abu Salem was given passport on the pretext that he was living in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh by a few corrupt lower rung officials.

On a larger scale, the recent stamp-scam, is estimated to be around Rs. 3,200 crores , and has led to the arrests of two MLAs, one each from Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh. The news reports suggest that the scam is part of a larger scheme of the ISI to slowly wreck the Indian economy.

Since June 2005, when Right to Information Act, was passed, it has been hailed as the hallmark of democracy for the reasons that it purports to make, as regards government information, disclosure the norm and secrecy as the exception. Experts feel that as the Act aims at making the government transparent and more accountable, the effective use of it would, in a long run, curb corruption.

It was not the case of fighting corruption at high power centre, which might affect the economy of the nation in a big way. It was a fight for protecting the bare minimum needs of small people from small corruption of petty officials, which became a life and death question for villagers.

This was a not a new right conferred on citizens, but was an essential part of our Fundamental Rights about which we were ignorant. The Right to Information Act is only a codification of a fundamental right of citizens, to implement and enforce it.

It is the means through which we can make our freedom of expression a meaningful right. If we do not have information on how our government and public institutions function, we cannot express any informed opinion on it. This has been accepted by various Supreme Court judgments since 1975.

The idea of preventing corruption through Right to Information is the idea, which has such a power, and the time has come to cure the disease of corruption. Right to information as such will bring transparency of the government activities and allow the people to find remedies for those things by which they suffered. Right to information means right information of the need of the hour. It's a weapon in the hands of every citizen without license.

Corruption is rampant in India. It is almost impossible to get any work done in any government office without paying bribes. If one does not pay bribe, unnecessary objections would be raised and the person would be made to run around.

But now every person has an option. One need not to pay bribes anymore to get the legitimate work done in any government department. The simple act of demanding to know the status of our grievance petition and the names of the officials who have been sitting on our file does wonders.

The Right to Information empowers citizens to ask for information from their government, and has the potential of enforcing the majesty of the Indian citizen. It ensures that a citizen sitting in her house and spending less than an hour and about Rs 50 to 70 can curb corruption, improve policy implementation or sometimes get a grievance redressed.

Citizens do not need to go to any office, or even telephone anybody. They can enforce good governance from their homes. In the event, the public servant treats an RTI requisition with contempt or indifference; he faces the threat of paying a personal penalty for this.

People have also been making a difference in the quality of works carried out by the government in their area. Absent sweepers turned up for duty when their attendance registers were sought. Incomplete works were completed and quality of works improved when copies of contracts of the works was sought.

MLA was forced to release money for a work demanded by the people, when the people obtained details of expenditure made by her out of her MLA Development Fund. A number of ghost works were found when copies of contracts of all the works carried out by the government in an area were obtained.

Right to Information is also redefining the relationships between the people and the governments. Till now, the people had to run around the government officials to get any work sanctioned or to get any work done in their area.

Not any more. Right to Information provides such critical information and evidence in the hands of the common man that equipped with this evidence, a person is able to take on the most entrenched vested interests. The officials run for cover and at times almost plead before the applicant.

The greater the access of the citizen to information, the greater would be the responsiveness of government to community needs.

Alternatively, the greater the restrictions that are placed on access, the greater the feelings of 'powerlessness' and 'alienation'. Ensuring the right to information would go a long way to strengthening democracy and curbing corruption through establishing transparency in the administration.

Corruption is a prevalent disease whose roots can never be detected even by those who are experts in investigating things. Corruption as it means today cannot be defined for a reason of limiting its contents. There is a controversial issue between any illegal act that could be considered to be defined as corruption and only those who do illegal acts being public servants.

This is because Prevention of Corruption Act mentions not all persons who do illegal acts as being corrupt, but only those who are significantly public servants. Corruption arising out of secrecy is thus has no solution until the veil of secrecy is removed through transparency.

In a Democratic society, a Citizen can realize his right to live in corruption free society only when the iron veils of secrecy are lifted and culture of transparency brought down. There are two significant phases in bringing in the culture of transparency – in imposing an obligation of the state to inform and providing a substantial Right to Know on the part of the citizens.

In modern constitutional democracies it is axiomatic that citizens have a right to know about the affairs of the Government which having been elected by them, seeks to formulate sound policies of governance aimed at their welfare. But like all other rights even this right has recognized limitations. It is by no means absolute.

In transactions which have serious repercussions on public security, secrecy and like nature, public interests demand that they should not be publicly disclosed or disseminated. To ensure the continued participation of the people in the democratic process they must be kept informed of the vital decisions taken by the Government and the basis thereof. Democracy, thus, expects openness is a concomitant of a free society. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Right to Know is an inherent attribute of every person. Right to know differs only in one sense with right to information. Right to know is a natural right and right to information is a provision given by government to its people. It came into existence for the first time in India in Rajasthan. People revolted against the corrupt activities for the Government.

Every citizen should curb corrupt activities in society through the help of this right. It is most possibly done only in a democratic government. Indian Constitution speaks impliedly about this right with a reasonable restriction. It can be considered as a natural right.

Natural rights do not have any value legally until they are legally considered. Hence right to know as such implied in the freedom of speech and expression which is a legally considered right must have to be given a special value. It should be considered as a special Fundamental Right by the Legislature.

The idea of preventing corruption through such an effective instrument namely, the Right to Information act should be considered by the people and taken recourse to. Armed with such a power and time have come to address the issue and cure the disease of corruption.

Right to information as such will bring transparency of the government activities and allow the people to find remedies for those things by which they suffered.