RTI underlines accountability, says Virendra Kumar
President Pratibha Patil, while addressing the joint session of Parliament on June 4, has laid down the road-map for the new UPA government. Noting that creativity, innovation and enterprise held the key to people and nations realising their potential, she observed that the “dreary desert sand of dead habit” must be left behind. Pursuing the same strand, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his communication to his Cabinet colleagues, gently reminded that “equity, innovation and public accountability must be the watchword of our government”.
One of the conspicuous and perhaps the most critical areas where the ‘dead habit continues to be the de-railing factor of democracy is the absence of accountability of public functionaries at different levels of governance. This bureaucratic culture of non-accountability is not only protected but also accentuated by the ‘dead habit’ of ‘secrecy’ which continues to derive its sustenance from the survival of the Official Secrets Act of 1923. This is so despite the neutralising effect of the Right to Information Act of 2005.
People have the right to know
Comment: Many innocent citizens and government servants have been framed by GOI and cases being dragged in the courts and pursued at Public Cost for several years for exposing bureaucratic corruption. There is a need to streamline and stop witch hunting and gross misuse of powers under the guise of "Official Secrecy act".
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