Beyond Voting: Hold Your Representatives Accountable Through Right To Information

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Hold MLAs Accountable

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Many citizens are under the impression that their jobs are done now and that they have no role to play after casting their votes. Even politicians think that once elected as Members of Legislative Assembly, they can take a backseat and not held accountable.

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However, the job of the citizen moves beyond choosing representatives. It is the legal right of citizens to hold their elected representatives accountable. This right extends to all citizens and not just those who voted for that particular candidate. Once elected, the MLA is accountable to all citizens who voted for him, who didn't vote for him and even those who didn't vote at all. All citizens have the right to access information about the funds allocated to MLAs by the Government under Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

Even as the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) is not a public authority but by virtue of being an elected representative, he/she/they are accountable under various transparency laws especially the Right to Information Act (RTI). An MLA also gets salary from the Government treasury – funded by the taxpayer's money - which too makes them accountable under law.

Read Also RTIM Commemorates Int'l Access To Information Day Right to Information: Sidelined and Out of Reach

Therefore, the job of citizens of J&K has not ended but has only begun now. As aware citizens with rights guaranteed by the constitution, they must remain vigilant and continue to hold their representatives accountable.

Right to Information and MLA's accountability

Right to information, which is the most popular, reformative and progressive law in Indian political and administrative history, is a powerful tool that can be used by citizens to hold MLAs accountable.

During the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, the Indian National Congress had promised the enactment of a progressive Right to Information act in their manifesto. In 2005, The UPA-1 Govt, headed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, had introduced the RTI bill in parliament in 2005 when it became a law.

In J&K, the RTI was passed for the first time in 2004 by PDP-Congress coalition Govt. However, when National Conference-Congress Govt came to power after the 2008 elections, a better version of RTI law was passed by the J&K legislature on March 20th, 2009.

The National Conference had also made RTI a part of their 2008 election manifesto and this author along with other colleagues had done a lot of advocacy around this issue at the time. After abrogation of Article 370, the J&K RTI Act 2009 was repealed along with dozens of erstwhile state laws, even as J&K's RTI law was better than the central act. Yet, from October 31st
2019, the RTI Act 2005 (Central law) became applicable in J&K.

This law empowers the citizens against administrative corruption and erratic/wrong administration. This act discloses the Governmental and Administrative functions, programs and process related information to every common man.

To make an MLA accountable one has to file an RTI application before the Public Information Officer (PIO) in the office of the Secretary State Legislative Assembly. We can also seek information about MLAs and their funds from the PIO in the office of Deputy Commissioner of the district. We can seek details of the spendings of the MLAs regarding their Constituency Development Fund (CDF). This information should be made proactively available by the DC office on their website as mandated under Section 4 of RTI Act 2005.
The MLA while submitting his nomination papers also makes a declaration about his property. There is, therefore, no secret in the already declared details about property, qualifications, criminal antecedents, family members and their properties etc. This information can be availed by the citizens from ECI website.

Citizen, MP, MLA have similar rights

Section 8 (1) (J) of RTI Act 2005 clearly states that information which cannot be denied to a Member of Parliament or State Legislature (MLA) cannot be denied to a citizen. The relevant section reads:

“Provided that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.”

About a decade back, Govt of India through its Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), issued guidelines directing all the public authorities, Public Information Officers (PIOs) and First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) at the Central and State level to implement the RTI Act 2005 in letter and spirit.

Additionally, a clear direction was given to them to follow this provision, as the RTI gives the citizens a right to information at par with the Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Members of the State Legislatures (MLAs). Unfortunately, the PIOs and FAAs continue to decline information and the matter goes to Information Commissions who often order disclosure of information.

Regime of Participatory Democracy

RTI is a tool to transform electoral democracy into Participatory Democracy. After casting votes, people in general are under the impression that their job is done but as citizens they have a great role especially when we have laws like Right to Information Act (RTI) or Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA). Participatory democracy is a form of democracy in which citizens are involved in the decision-making process of aspects especially affecting their lives. Gram Sabha or Halqa Maljis under J&K Panchayati Raj Act 1989 is one the best examples of Participatory Democracy. The J&K Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) that was enacted by NC-Congress Govt in 2010 is still intact and was not repealed post 370 abrogation but its implementation has been very bad in the last 5 years and people are deprived of
different
public services within stipulated time.

These acts can give our citizens a central role in the decision making through various means like public discussion, negotiations and local development. Participatory democracy strives to create opportunities for all members of a population to make meaningful contributions to public policy.

Conclusion

The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 gives citizens the right to access
information from public authorities.
Even as central RTI is applicable in J&K for five years now, its implementation has been poor. Now, more than ever, the government needs to take steps to strengthen its implementation so citizens can hold their representatives accountable. The government has several duties under the RTI Act 2005 which includes creating public education, training the officers and making voluntary disclosure of information as mandated under section 4 (1) (b) of RTI Act 2005. Merely voting or participating in rallies of political leaders is not democracy but holding the elected representatives accountable is also our right as well as duty, and RTI is the best tool to do so.

• Views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer

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