murali772's blog

The following is my report on the "All India Management Association (AIMA) Conference on Public Private Partnerships: Issues of Governance", held at Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore, on Friday, the 16th July.

Following (in italics) are the relevant excerpts from the New Indian Express report:

The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure. Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people. So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”. “They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said. “They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

Given the choice, very few amongst the middle and upper classes in the country will ever want to have anything to do with the government or its agencies, plainly because they lack the basic 'technology' of handling them. But, fortunately or unfortunately, the government is omnipresent in our country, providing as it is all vital services like power/ water/ gas supplies, and railways/ bus transport services, etc, and, somewhere or the other, you'll necessarily have to cross its path, whether you like it or not. This has given birth to a flourishing 'middleman industry' across the country, with members from the highly respectable fraternity of CA's and lawyers at the upper end, to plain touts at the lower end, providing an array of services across the spectrum. But, all these come at a cost which the aam aadmi can ill afford.

Today, I had this strange experience. I had been invited to this meeting convened by Mr A Ravindra, advisor to the CM on urban issues, at the instance of the Bangalore Environment Trust, on the matter of 'road-widening', at 3.30 PM at the Vikas Soudha (On what transpired at the meeting, I will post separately - nothing too earth-shaking, though).

I reached well ahead of time, parked my car in the paid parking lot in the Cubbon park, near the library, and walked upto the Vikas Soudha main-gate. But, to reach the main gate, I had to cross the busy Vidhan Veedhi. There was a convenient pedestrian crossing, with signal lights, though the zebra markings had mostly got obliterated. The signal was showing red as I reached it, and the law-abiding citizen that I like to be seen to be, I waited for it to turn green, even as many people were crossing all over, darting through the speeding traffic. After some patient waiting, it suddenly occurred to me that a whole new cycle had started, even as the pedestrian signal had remained red right through.

From over a year now, the responses from GoK officials to queries under RTI, are being made out only in Kannada, even when raised in English, and even when specifically requested to respond in English.

Now, though I can speak Kannada fairly fluently; I can't read or write the language (Questions as to why people like me haven't bothered to learn to read and write the language can be the subject of another blog; but, please do not bring it up here). However, even true-blue Kannadiga's, to whom I have been referring these official responses, have been having difficulty figuring out the specific nuances pertaining to the issues involved.

As such, I feel this is a strategy being adopted by the babu's largely to obfuscate and prevaricate on issues. And, it is certainly having its effects - like from over a year, I have not filed a single query, though I used to be quite a regular before.

In the light of all these, on the 1st of this year, I filed a query as under:

For as long as I can remember, I have opposed proportional representation on the usual grounds: stability, the rights of constituencies to elect their own candidates, etc. But watching the drama surrounding the British elections, I have begun to reconsider my position.

It is clear that in India, first past the post does not produce overall majorities. It is also clear that the relationship the framers of our Constitution envisaged between an MP and his constituents has remained a fantasy.

Moreover, the electoral system is being tampered with all the time. If the major political parties have their way, we will now reserve seats for women, creating sexually segregated ghettoes within our constituency map. This may or may not be a valid amendment but it has not been accompanied by any national debate. Those who support it do so on goody-goody grounds: “Let’s give women a chance, yaar”. Those who oppose it in Parliament do so because they are bigots.