| ID | 035954 |
| Call Number | 323.445/ROY |
| Title Proper | The RTI Story |
| Other Title Information | Power To The People |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Roy Aruna |
| Publication | New Delhi, Lotus Collection, 2018. |
| Description | xxiv ;375pp |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This book is a collective history that tells the story of how ordinary people can come together and prevail against great odds, to make democracy more meaningful.
The RTI Act has been true to its mandate, faithful to its promise. From a ration shop in a hamlet to the president's residence in Delhi, it has done what it should be doing. Like any other law, it has had its saboteurs, abusers. A redemptive law should be judged by its successes, but be ready to be questioned for its failings. An Act that brings about accountability should not be coy when it is itself called to account.The Act has come, like all Acts come, from the wisdom of the Indian parliament. Curiously, it is in its birthplace, its own cradle, the Hon'ble Parliament, that the Act seems to have found some of its most vociferous detractors. They have their reasons. Sections of the political class and of the bureaucracy have also developed methods to tiptoe round provisions of the Act. They have their skills. This weakens the impact of the Act. There is another 'problem'. The Act's workforce, namely, the personnel in the information commissions, reflect all the diversity of our population. Our information commissions and their secretariats have had in their personnel from the many active to not-a-few slothful, from the many dedicated to the not-so-few sceptical. And they include, one might add, some fearful and some rather compromised. 'Compromise' does not need explaining. But all this does not dishearten the true harbingers of the Act who remain prepared to test its working against its experience.
Behind the RTI story lies one hugely dismaying fact: the lives of RTI activists and campaigners are at risk. As many as sixty of them have lost their lives. They are martyrs to the cause of the good state, of public accountability, constitutional morality. We honour them. Just as we mourn the loss of brave soldiers protecting our nation's territorial integrity, we mourn the loss of brave soldiers protecting our constitutional integrity. The tragedy is that one is killed by bullets from across the border, and the other by one of our own. |
| Contents | Introduction
Chapter One - Devdungri: The Beginning
Chapter Two - Sohangarh and the Struggle for Land
Chapter Three - The Concept and Birth of the MKSS
Chapter Four - The First Hunger Strike, 1990
Chapter Five - The Bhim Minimum Wages Sammelan
Chapter Six - The Second Hunger Strike, 1991 - A Watershed
Chapter Seven - Exposing the Myth of the Free and Open Market
Chapter Eight - Articulating the Demand for Transparency
Chapter Nine - MKSS and Public Hearings
Chapter Ten - Political Promises and Accountability
Chapter Eleven - Hamara Paisa Hamara Hisab: Beawar and Jaipur Dharnas, 1996
Chapter Twelve - The Formation of the NCPRI and the Making of the Law
Chapter Thirteen - The Process and the Campaign Travel: The Public Hearings
Chapter Fourteen - The Rajasthan Divisional Dharnas
Chapter Fifteen - The Dharna in Jaipur: May-August, 1997
Chapter Sixteen - NCPRI and the State Laws
Chapter Seventeen - The Second Set of Jan Sunwais
Chapter Eighteen - The Rajasthan State Act - An Intermediate Success
Chapter Nineteen - The Challenge of Elections
Chapter Twenty - The Public Hearings in Umarwas
Chapter Twenty-One - Janawad Jan Sunwai
Chapter Twenty-Two - Government Enquiry Endorses Janawad Public Hearings
Chapter Twenty-Three - NCPRI Convention, Beawar 2001
Chapter Twenty-Four - Post-Janawad and the Response of the Government of Rajasthan
Chapter Twenty-Five - Jan Niti Abhiyan
Chapter Twenty-Six - Freedom of Information Bill, 2002
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Friends and Colleagues in Delhi
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Second NCPRI, 2004
Chapter Twenty-Nine - RTI Law 2005 and the NAC
Chapter Thirty - RTI Amendments, 2006
In Conclusion
Notes
Annexure I - The Beawar Declaration
Annexure II - The Freedom of Information Bill, 2000 |
| Standard Number | 978-81-8462-139-5 |
| Price. Qualification | 400/-(PB) |
| Classification Number | 323.445 |
| Key Words | Devdungri ; Struggle for Land ; The 1st Hunger Strike, 1990 ; The Bhim Minimum Wages Sammelan ; The 2nd Hunger Strike, 1991 ; Myth of the Free and Open Market ; RTI Amendments, 2006 ; (Complimentary Copy) |