While Anna Hazare's Fast hogged all the possible media attention, there are some more instances of fight against corruption which has probably not received the attention that it should...
I read an article in today's paper about confiscation of property of corrupt officials and using it for public service. The Bihar government seized the mansion of a corrupt officer and converted it into a school for poor children. These schools were being run in rented rooms. The details can be read at the link provided below.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2436881.ece
On further research i found out about Jaankari. an e-RTI initiative by Bihar government... All of us know about RTI and its benefits to the society.. However the process is cumbersome for the common man to fully utilise the benefits fo this act.The details of the current problems and how it is addressed through Jaankari was provided in this PDF file shared on Bihar CM's website.
Excerpt from the report is provided below.Objectives of RTI The "Right to Information Act" was passed by Government of India in June,2005 with the following objectives:
(i) to provide for setting out practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities;
(ii) to promote transparency and accountability in the working of everypublic authority;
(iii) to set up Central Information Commission and State InformationCommission and for matters connected therewith;
(iv) to contain corruption and to hold governments and theirinstrumentalities accountable to the governed;
(v) to harmonise revelation of information with public interests includingefficient operations of the governments, optimum use of limited fiscalresources and the preservation of confidentiality of sensitizeinformation.What does Right to Information mean
It includes the right to –
i) inspect works, documents, records;
ii) take notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;
iii) take certified samples of material;iv) obtain information in form of print outs, diskettes, floppies, tapes,video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through print outs.
Who are Public Information Officers (PIOs) ?
PIOs are officers designated by the public authorities in all administrativeunits or offices under it to provide information to the citizens requesting forinformation under the Act. Any officer, whose assistance has been sought by the PIO for the proper discharge of his or her duties, shall render all assistance and for the purpose of contraventions of the provisions of this Act, such other officer can be treated as a PIO.
Project "JAANKARI"-A Facilitation Centre Approach
It’s common experience that masses often are oblivious and ignorant about how the Government decisions are made. This lack of transparency acts as a barrier which prevents the masses not only from actively participating in the Governmental functioning, but also from raising questions and protecting from impaired or ill-advised decisions.
Non-transparency also promotes and disguises official graft and favoritism.
It’s here that e-Governance can play an essential role in bringing the governmental policy and processes to light.Government transparency should be embedded in the decisions of all ICT systems. For example, official corruption can be reduced by re-organizing activities, such as licensing, permit, etc, and creating an online monitoring system to track each application, whereby official could be identified and held personally accountable for any action or inaction at anystage. It was felt that highly-placed public officials can expedite transparency and accountability efforts by making their offices positive examples of openness. While putting services online, citizens should begiven the ability to track the status of their applications.
Government programmes. Such technology programmes must tackle the twin issues, of e-literacy and accessibility especially for the disadvantaged groups of the rural Bihar.
Problems of the citizens:
Many people cannot fill Form A, as mentioned in the relevant Rules or draftapplication. Some of them are illiterate and due to this factor alone, RTI cannot be used by a huge section of population.• People do not know which Department to approach for different issues. And without this knowledge, it is impossible to file an RTI application easily.
• Even if one knows the Department, there are multiple Public Information Officers (PIOs) in a Department and it would be quite difficult for a personto know who is the right PIO, suited to his requirement.
Depositing application fee of Rs.10 is another nightmare. One has to eithergo in person to the concerned office to deposit cash or make a Demand Draftor a postal order. Apart from a financial implication, it also involves spending a lot of time investing Bank/post office.
If one does not the get "right" information, filling an appeal is even more complicated and tiring process.
RTI Act has major role in promoting e-literacy, especially among the poor and disadvantaged sections of the society. And to ensure e-literacy, the factor of accessibility must also be taken care of. Governments must be sensitive to the special needs of poor, physically challenged and disable persons. It must design its services with appropriate interfaces suited to the disadvantaged persons.
However, this accommodation and customization has significant cost implications.The poor, disadvantaged and challenged section of the population can substantially benefit from e-government services, as they may not be able to travel to government officers or the downtrodden people may not be able to articulate their demands.
Solution- Project "JAANKARI" - an ICT initiative
Visualizing the ramifications of the RTI Act for people’s empowerment and its effectiveness in reduction of corrupt practices in government offices, which result mostly due to holding of information and avoiding transparency, the State Government of Bihar decided to make provision of RTI Act more broad based and easily accessible to ordinary people. It was decided that ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) be innovatively and effectively employed for expanding the base of the RTI access and that a Facilitation Centre Called "JAANKARI" for RTI be set up, for the first time in India, Bihar Government's RTI Facilitation Centre “JAANKARI” for filing RTI application with the concerned State government Department works on premium rate services of BSNL.
System designed to enable a citizen wishing to file an application forseeking any information under RTI Act, without any hassles of physical movement for purchase of postal order ( for the requisite RTI application feeof Rs.10/-)going to the designated RTI Officer of the concerned department.
The primary and mandatory requirement was to charge RTI applicationfee(Rs.10/-) from the citizen without physical transaction of money. This could be fulfilled with the help of BSNL Premium Rate Services.
All the facilities were quickly put up in place and the “JAANKARI”Facilitation Centre was located in the State Government’s SoftwareTechnology Park in BISCOMAUN Tower, Patna. The State Government asked Beltron to procure the necessary hardware, software & authorised to operate it.
The operation was outsourced to a government neutral agency.The Facilitation Centre executives were not from government and hencewere unbiased. The Software was designed in consultation with officials who had been operating another e-Janshikayat software from CM Secretariat.
Necessary amendments were made by the State Government in the relevant rules to lower the fees for filing first and second appeal to Rs. 10/- each, to enable e-transactions through phone call to receive payments.
Executive Orders were issued and the Facilitation Centre “JAANKARI” was designated and authorised to receive phone calls from public at the prearranged premium rate i.e. a call costing Rs. 10/per call (rupees ten per call) to take care of the prescribed application fee and generate RTI application on behalf of the caller.The Facilitation Centre executives were trained and sensitized. They were to receive calls and convert the voice demands into "electronic format",compatible with RTI, Act. Since issues involved varied with each request and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact PIOs dealing with the issue,
One senior administrative officer was made available to Facilitation centre to help in co-ordinating with PIOs and departmental heads. The official was well versed with the governmental system and its "Rules of executiveBusiness" which assigns specific work to a department and also mentions itsdelegated powers.
This is the first and unique experiment aimed at RTI empowerment of people.
Procedures for filing “Request for Information”:
• The Government after realizing a Facilitation Centre, advertised two phone numbers to the public. One of the numbers is RTI Help-line Number (RHN)and the other number is RTI Application Number (RAN).
• RHN is an ordinary number with hunting line facility with normal Callcharges. If any citizen wants to get any help about how to use RTI, he can use this number.
• When a person calls up RAN, he is asked to give his name, address, what information does he want and from which department does he want thatinformation. This conversation is voice recorded and also typed on computersimultaneously by the Facilitation Centre executive receiving the call request.
• If the citizen does not know the department concerned, then the Facilitation Centre staff will help him identity it. But in some rare cases, even the Facilitation Centre staff would not know about the exact department. To deal with such cases, the Government has assigned a government official to oversee the operation-centre. The official knows the functioning of each department and the relevant issues connected with it. So, he can supervise the operations at the centre and can facilitate in ascertaining the correct PIO/APIOS.
• Many ordinary citizens may not even know what types of information to askfor. They would just know their problems. Facilitation Centre staff would be trained to help and deal with such cases. A good amount of handholding is required to help the not-so-literate people. A patient, effective conversation with a caller results in generation of one application.
• Once an RTI application has thus been filled the Facilitation center (FC) will confirm its contents with the caller again & than take two copies of it and send the first copy to the applicant. Each of these generated applications will have a unique reference number, which will be assigned by the computer S/W, itself .
This reference number can be quoted on the helpline to ask for the application's content (with proper mechanism to respect one's privacy and address the security issues).
• The Second copy will be sent to the concerned PIO and The PIO will have 35 days (from the date of receipt of application in CC) to provide information. During this period, the PIO should prepare information and send it to the applicant directly.
Advantages to Citizens :
1. Sitting at home-Power of information is just a phone call away. Project
application was designed after wide consultations. Citizen is the focus of the
initiative,
2. No hassles of physical movement to PIO Office for filing RTI application,
3. Money saved by way of travel time/lost as well as for making drafts/Postal
order from Bank and Post offices,
4. Government bears the cost of the Facilitation Centre, cost of transmitting the
application to the concerned PIOs as well as substantial cost on providing
the premium call service,
5. The Project keeps in mind differences in local culture when seeking to
engage citizens,
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