SUMITHRAM FOUNDATION
Towards making Indian democracy accountable to public
Aims of Sumithram Foundation
To ensure a statutory and enforceable right to information for the people
To mobilize people to demand, exercise and protect their right to information and other political and administrative rights as law abiding citizens of India
To facilitate the operationalising of the citizen's right and general empowerment of people
To facilitate the formulation, enactment and execution of laws promoting transparency
To support and aid in diffusion of grass roots efforts to access information
To seek support and influence government action and policy towards transparent functioning
To disseminate information on the citizen's right through publications, the media and in meetings and workshops
To propagate, disseminate and diffuse news and information on and to facilitate the formulation, enactment and execution of laws on, plugging loopholes in statutes and regulations, arresting their misuse and to advice and influence government and judicial action on ways and means to curb the same
To network and associate with large number of like minded groups institutions and individuals in India and abroad
To generate mass awareness on matters of public importance and also to disseminate information on developments and activities taking place in the areas of public importance.
To share knowledge and locate resources on a variety of topics of public importance
To build a community of experience on the above topics through individual member contributions
To stay on top of the above topics with free email alerts and newsletters
To organize, conduct and hold classes. lectures, discourses, seminars, workshops, training centers and other media or propagation for the promotion, instruction, diffusion and preservation of knowledge in general.
To grant donations and render other kind of financial assistance to societies, associations, institutions, founded for the purpose of dissemination of information of public importance.
To grant scholarship/ loans, subsidy, supply books and other study materials either free of cost or at concessional rates or subsidize education expenses to needy and deserving students in pursuing their educational career in all spheres.
To print, publish, aid in buying, buy and distribute gratuitously or sell at concessional rates, such literatures, periodicals, journals, books, calendars, souvenirs, magnetic tapes, CD/DVD ROMs, MP3 or any type of taped music, in electronic media or otherwise. and to maintain libraries in the above subjects , as may be thought subservient to the objects of the trust.
To grant donations, aid or any other kind of financial assistance to students, institutions, training centers, societies/ associations/ institutions founded for achieving the above objects.
To accept contributions, in money or in kind, devises and bequeaths for all and any of the purposes aforesaid and manage the same;
To raise resources for augmenting income any of the above purposes as may be permitted by law as the Board of Trustees deem fit and necessary.
To carry on the activity resulting in advancement of object of general public utility and which is not restricted to or for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste and which does not involve the carrying on of any activity for profit.
RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT AIMED AT TRANSPARENCY
What is the Right to Information Act ?
The Right to Information Act 2004 is a comprehensive legislation that would confer statutory rights on citizens for seeking information from public authorities.
The Act seeks to ensure : Maximum disclosure and minimum exemptions consistent with constitutional provisions. An effective mechanism for access to information and disclosure by the authorities concerned. An independent appeal mechanism. Penalties for failure to provide information as per the law. The Act is a major improvement that was passed by the Parliament in December 2002 but never came into force. The Right to Information Bill was tabled in Parliament on December 23-2004 and was passed on May 12-2005.Upon receiving President's assent on June 15-2005, the RTI Act is supposed to come into force in 120 days. So latest by October 12, the RTI Act should be functional in every city and village. The Act is not applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir and intelligence and security organizations like the IB, RAW,BSF etc. It also provides an exemption for all documents of the cabinet and council of ministers.
Well what is the controversy over this Act ?
After initially rejecting it, the Government has finally accepted the bureaucrat's demand that noting by officials on government files should not be made public under the RTI Act. The President also had backed the demand and supporters of this view claim that if not enacted it will discourage officials from making honest and fair assessments as file noting are part of the deliberation process.
 |
It is disheartening for those who want to assert people's right to information. Let us recall the words of P.Chidambaram when he was Minister of State for Home Affairs:
"The President cannot ask for anything, cannot do anything, cannot turn away anything, cannot send anything, cannot receive anything without the aid and advice of the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. The President is bound to accept the advice of the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister advises him that this is the information that is relevant, if the Prime Minister advises him that is the information that is sufficient, if the Prime Minister advises him that this the proper course for the governance of the country, the President is bound by that advice and that advice cannot be called into question anyway."[ Quote from page 23 of Practice and Procedure of Parliament by G.C.Malhotra and published by Loksabha Secretariat in 2001]
If the Presidents power are thus defined it shows Peoples elected representatives are Supreme. Ultimately it leads to the logical conclusion that People are Supreme. If their representatives are delegated with powers to define what President should know, their masters namely the electors ought to have superior powers in any mature democracy. The right to information is now a globally accepted phenomenon. Democracies all over the world had come with such Acts. Every year September 28 is even celebrated as International Right to Know Day.
"International
Right-to-Know Day"
People in a fast-growing number of
nations now celebrate "International Right-to-Know Day" on September 28 of each
year to recognize and promote the worldwide proliferation of government
openness.
This movement was begun by a group of
openness-in-government proponents from roughly three dozen nations who joined
together in Sofia, Bulgaria on September 28, 2002 to form a coalition known as
the "Freedom of Information Advocates Network." They chose the annual
commemoration of this event "in order to symbolize the global movement for
promotion of the right to information." In the United States of course, "Freedom
of Information Day" is celebrated each year on March 16, which was chosen
because it is James Madison's birthday.
Thirty-eight years ago when the
Freedom of Information Act was enacted, the United States stood nearly alone in
the world in providing an enforceable legal mechanism for public access to the
official records of a national government. That remained so for more than
fifteen years before the next nation, Australia, enacted its own counterpart
law. In fact, when the Office of Information and Privacy was formed in November
of 1981, the only other nations with openness-in-government laws were Sweden,
whose freedom of information tradition traces back to 1766, and Finland, whose
legal system carried forth that tradition when it gained its independence from
Sweden in 1919.
Since 1981, as worldwide interest in freedom of
information (or "transparency in government" as it internationally is known) has
grown, OIP has met with representatives of what is now a total of more than
eighty nations interested in the adoption of their own government information
access laws, providing briefings on the operation of our statute and advice on
the development and implementation of their potential counterpart
laws.
During the past two decades the spread of government transparency
around the world has been quite remarkable. Beginning with the Commonwealth
nations of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in 1982-1983, and fueled by the
break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, dozens of nations have pursued
the development of FOIA-like systems with great success. And as a rule, they
have built on the experiences of the nations that came before them, taking pains
not to repeat any misjudgments or miscalculations that were made
elsewhere.
In some cases, these efforts involved many years of
internal deliberation, much as took place in the United States between 1955 and
1966 when the Freedom of Information Act was the subject of protracted
consideration in Congress. Japan, for example, began sending representatives to
OIP in late 1981 but its national openness-in-government law did not come into
existence until almost twenty years later, in 2001.
Similarly, in the United Kingdom, where freedom of information advocates had an uphill battle against the longstanding British tradition that is embodied in its Official Secrets Act, their efforts still have not yet reached fruition; England's FOIA counterpart is on the books, but its effective date has been extended by more than four years so that it does not take effect until 2005.
Mexico, by contrast, developed and implemented its counterpart
statute relatively quickly; it became law in June 2003 after only a one-year
implementation period. Today, more than fifty-five nations, covering all
continents of the world save Antarctica, have established openness-in-government
regimes similar to the FOIA at the national government level. They range from
Ireland to Romania in Europe, from India to Thailand in Asia, from Peru to
Argentina in South America, and to South Africa as well. Argentina now holds the
distinctions of having one of the shortest implementation times (ninety days)
and of implementing a FOIA-like regime by executive fiat
alone.
On the horizon, it would seem to be only a matter of time
before a majority of the more than two-hundred nations of the world will have
formal openness-in-government regimes.
 |
Continents are coming together and future world is going to be
one continent. Similarly all countries have come forward to implement Right to
Information. This heralds a new dawn. But we have to go miles and miles to reach
our destination. To create a better tomorrow Sumithram Foundation takes the
first step forward.
QUESTION BANK
The People of Pondicherry can mail us questions that linger in their minds.
We will take up your questions with concerned Departments and get their replies. If the replies are not satisfactory on the recommendation of experts we will take follow up action. Let us all make our democracy responsible to its ultimate Master the Common Man
Founder: N.Vaithianathan : Sumithram Foundation
23 Main Road Rainbow Nagar Pondicherry 605011
Email: sumithramfoundation@yahoo.co.in