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By Rashme Sehgal
Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy is founder-member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatana and a member of the National Advisory Council. She is an outspoken champion of an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act 2002 and the much-talked-about Employment Guarantee Act
After spearheading the Right to Information Act, Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy has been at the forefront of moves to push through two important pieces of legislation: an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, and the introduction of a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (EGA).
Roy is a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Sonia Gandhi. After two lengthy sittings this August, the NAC has forwarded a list of 36 amendments that are expected to bring about sweeping changes in the way government bodies function.
The NAC forwarded a list of 36 amendments to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August this year. What are some of the changes you want introduced?
The earlier Right to Information Act was a weak law especially in the area of penalties. We have worked to get this strengthened. Some of our demands include making it mandatory for intelligence and security agencies to provide information that pertains to human rights violations and allegations of corruption against them. The Department of Personnel and Training is already working to get this tabled in this session of Parliament.
How will it work?
Information on the 19 intelligence (RAW, the Intelligence Bureau, CRPF, etc) and security agencies will not come under the purview of the law, but they will have to provide information about corruption and human rights violations.
But this is quite a tricky area to negotiate…
Our demand is for greater transparency in government functioning.
Are your demands for a chief information commissioner and state commissioners being resisted?
Yes. We get the impression that the bureaucracy is resisting amendments like the one on punitive clauses and on the appointment of independent commissioners. We also want the Official Secrecy Act changed. Instead of the 25-year clause (for information to be furnished), it should be shortened to a 10-year clause. The prime minister has assured us that the bill will be tabled in this session of Parliament. Otherwise we will go into ‘agitational’ mode.
Do you also want the EGA to be introduced during this session of Parliament?
The EGA will guarantee 100 days of employment to one member of every rural household. But already the bill is being diluted because the government has insisted that the urban poor and the lower middle class be excluded. We realise that two different acts and two different delivery systems will be required to provide an EGA in urban areas.
There are rumours that the government does not have the money to put this scheme in place…
It will require 1.5% of the GDP, which works out to Rs 40,000 crore annually. For the present, the government is willing to implement the EGA only in the 150 backward districts, which will bring the cost down to Rs 10,000 crore.
We believe the government lacks the political will to implement the scheme. We believe that the basic needs of hunger and employment must be met. If 40% of Indians are asking for 1% of the GDP, it is no big deal.
Has the bill been diluted in other areas as well?
For one, the government has removed the time limit on the scheme’s implementation. We want it to be put in place by next year. Also, we think that if the scheme is not implemented in the concerned areas, the responsibility for its lack of implementation must be placed on the concerned officials’ shoulders. The other problem is that the government wants only those whose names are on the BPL list to be eligible for this scheme. These BPL lists are faulty and need to be drastically revised. The really poor do not have special ration or health cards. How will they be identified?
Where is the money going to come from?
We can cite the example of Maharashtra, which implemented the EGA 25 years ago. It did so after a severe drought, and the scheme continues to be in use there. The state raises Rs 3,000 crore annually by levying a surcharge on irrigated agricultural land and on the vehicle-owning population.
But this has not stopped farmers in Maharashtra from committing suicide…
It is the middle-level farmers, not the very poor, who are committing suicide in Maharashtra. They are doing so because they have not been able to meet their social obligations. We find that a lot of communal violence in the country is a result of unemployment.
Some states, including Rajasthan, have already implemented an EGA. Yet you continue to have starvation deaths there…
The state government has promised 30 days of employment per year. But often they give villagers as little as 15 days. This is partly because of corruption and inefficiency and also because of the lack of empowerment of the poor. The panchayats lack teeth and most of them are bankrupt.
This government keeps lauding its panchayati raj programme. Are you saying it is not working on the ground?
Panchayats must be allowed to raise their own money. The only state where they are doing so is Kerala, which is why they have proved so effective there. The plan expenditure by the government has been reduced by 30-40%. Also, there has been no devolution of financial powers. Most panchayats are getting between Rs 1.5 and Rs 2 lakh under the SGRY scheme. A sarpanch receives a salary of Rs 400 per month, and he is doing a full-time job.
The EGA will further empower panchayats because 50% of the revenue under this scheme will have to be spent by the panchayats.
(Rashme Sehgal is an independent writer and journalist based in New Delhi)
InfoChange News & Features, December 2004
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