The first step towards opening "secret" files maintained by civil servants and public authorities was taken by Parliament through Freedom of Information Act,2002.It was replaced by Right to Information Act in 2005. The objective was to give meaning to the word "civil servant".For,the babus had been groomed by the system to hide almost everything from those for whose service they were employed. Attitude is an important aspect of service,which has been sorely lacking in a majority of civil servants. Those who cleared tough competitive examinations to become civil servants behaved like masters.
Most of them felt that whatever they did,be it at block,district or state level,people should stay obliged, even though much more was expected of them.They moved around with an air and paraphernalia that people generally referred to them as "uncivil" servants.
With the RTI Act,citizens were empowered to find out where their file was struck.The law made it mandatory for civil servants and public authorities to give information promptly on the common man's query. Let us assume that RTI Act has been implemented to the T and every citizen now knows about the bottlenecks in completion of a particular work.But how does this knowledge help He can either write to higher authorities or move court seeking redressal of his grievance. Well,the courts are already deluged with cases and there is little chance of him getting early relief in matters pertaining to digging a tube well in a village or constructing a school. There is no guarantee that the higher authorities,generally sympathetic towards their peers,would do anything promptly to redress the grievance.
In this backdrop,the Nitish Kumar government's proposal to bring in Right to Service Act brings fresh hope of development catching pace in hitherto neglected hinterlands.It is probably time,after 60 years of India becoming a Republic and the free run the civil servants had till now,that the common man must get the right to point out which official was responsible for not getting the sanctioned work executed in villages and towns within the stipulated period.And it is about time for that civil servant to face the music from the real masters,the people of India.
Without the right to service,the RTI Act will be rendered meaningless as mere knowledge of what the babu has noted in the files is not enough.It must be supplemented by giving people the right to demand service from civil servants.This alone can make files get dusted out and catch pace and translate decisions to actual work on the ground.Right to service is explained as a key element in the Constitution's Directive Principles of State Policy.The preamble of the Constitution also promised to secure justice "social,economic and political" for the citizens.
Directive principles provided guidelines for creation of conditions in which citizens could,in the true sense,enjoy their fundamental rights. The importance of directive principles,embodying the essence of right to service,is explained by the Supreme Court in its judgment Mohini Jain vs State of Karnataka [1992 SCC (3) 666].
For example,it was promised by our leaders in Parliament in the 1950s that illiteracy would be wiped out within 10 years.Did it translate into enough primary schools The lack of enthusiasm towards this commitment had been discussed in the 1992 judgment. The SC had said,"The threepronged justice (social,economic and political) promised by the preamble is only an illusion to the teeming millions who are illiterate.It is education which equips a citizen to participate in achieving the objectives enshrined in the preamble."
Has the government been able to provide safe drinking water to all There are a host of urgent matters which have remained wrapped in red tape for decades.If the RTI Act is able to untie the red-tape and make information flow,then this knowledge would be rendered meaningless unless the common man is equipped with a legal right to put the 'civil servant' to task through Right to Service Act,which needs to be enacted by every state and the Centre,not Bihar alone.
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(SOURCE-TOI)
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