The Hindu Business Line : Towards transparency

IF all goes well, Kerala will join the rest of the nation on Wednesday in moving one step closer to a citizen-empowered and citizen-mediated democracy, one slightly freer from corruption and the suffocating tentacles of haughty, unaccountable government functionaries. On 12 October, the Right to Information Act 2005 will come into effect, encompassing the entire country, except Jammu and Kashmir.

The Act is designed to "provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority."

The preamble to the Act states the rationale behind the new legislation as springing from the fact that "democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information, which are vital to its functioning, and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed."

Transparency International (TI), the civil society organisation leading the global fight against corruption, says that "securing citizen's right to access information held by public bodies is a necessary - though not sufficient - first step to help prevent corruption." TI has long been advocating the "adoption of transparency and access to information standards and legislation - not only as an integral part of a basic system of human rights - but as a way to ensure that public business is conducted with minimised corruption risks, namely, by giving citizens and communities the ability to make informed decisions."

To date, according to TI, over 60 countries worldwide have passed legislation guaranteeing that citizens can access information held by public bodies. However, the organisation warns, "an entrenched culture of secrecy, still present in many of these countries, means that the effective fulfilment of this right is far from satisfactory."

This is where Kerala can take a lead. As a society, Kerala, with its impressive history of participatory democracy and citizen-led public action, stands to benefit especially well from any move to guarantee greater accessibility to official public information.

The State Government seems to have lost no time in getting its act together. Already, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has announced that all statutory requirements have been completed for the implementation of the Right to Information Act from October 12.

Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting last week, he said the General Administration Department would be made the nodal department for the implementation of the Act and all heads of departments would be designated State Public Information Officers. The outgoing Chief Secretary, Palat Mohandas, is expected to be appointed the State Information Commissioner.

These are welcome signs. If the State Government remains true to its stated goals of transparency and accountability - as reiterated by the Chief Minister - then it can also use the new-found vision of information rights to push forward its developmental agenda. Among the foundation stones of that agenda are several projects - many half-baked - including the Kochi Smart City project, the object of suspicion in some quarters.

Alternatively, a genuinely democratic government can engage the new openness to change the course of its development direction - for the betterment of its citizens. In any case, freedom of access to information can only be energising.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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