Throwing transparency into the dust bin : Very discernible design
- Sangai Express Editorial :: September 23, 2013 -

A very discernible design behind the apparent negligence and apathy.

There has to be a reason why the Government has allowed the State Information Commission, SIC for short, to lie in a state of comatose since September, 12, 2012.

Set up on June 15, 2005, in line with the Right to Information Act passed by Parliament, the primary responsibility of the State Information Commission was to furnish information to the public on any matters pertaining to the functioning of the State Government Departments, barring the Home Department.

Hailed as one of the landmark Acts passed by Parliament, today, the RTI has been reduced to something of a joke, with the State Government deliberately overlooking the fact that the SIC cannot function effectively without a State Chief Information Commissioner.

Mr RK Angousana who was appointed the State Chief Information Commissioner when the SIC was set up, retired on September 12, 2012.

On March 31 this year, the State Information Commissioner, Ch Birendra followed suit and hung up his boots.

That the Government has not deemed it fit to fill in the posts with fresh appointments tells many a story. It simply cannot be a case of negligence, but a negligence or apathy with a design.

An Act passed to ensure transparency but today reduced to something of a farce and the design behind the negligence to appoint the needed officials becomes all too apparent.

This more than underlines the point that the State Government sees the RTI, not as an Act to ensure transparency, but as something of an irritant, an Act, which has the potential to expose many of its shady deals. A sure shot way of telling the people to lay off. Come to think about it.

It is not only the State Information Commission which has been given the quiet burial but also the Manipur Human Rights Commission.

Top this off with the fact that other Commissions, such as the Manipur State Commission for Women exists only on paper with no meaningful work done at the ground level and it should not be too hard to discern that Commissions are set up and discarded at the fancy and whims of the State Government.

A case of too many skeletons lying inside the closet of the Government. When the SIC was first set up following the implementation of the RTI Act, a number of individuals took it upon themselves to raise questions, especially pertaining to the financial dealings of Government Departments.

There were cases galore of departments concerned trying to side step the questions raised and take refuge in some legal jargons.

A tell tale sign that the RTI and the presence of the SIC was beginning to rock numerous Government Departments, having the potential to nail the officials concerned.

The State Government certainly seems to have applied its minds on how to neutralise or deal with the irritants, read the RTI Act through the SIC.

Let the posts of the State Chief Information Commissioner lie vacant. Leave the post of the State Information Commissioner vacant too.

It is the same tactics that has been followed in the case of the Manipur Human Rights Commission too. For all practical purposes, the MHRC is today a dead entity.

No prizes for guessing who injected that lethal dose of medication and why. That an elected Government should be answerable to the people is a given.

It is one of the most important premises on which the philosophy and understanding of a democracy lies.

The Congress Government in Manipur has not exactly put it in print that it does not believe in this premise, but in deliberately rendering the SIC defunct, it has conveyed the message that it is not answerable or is not ready to answer to the public, whenever any posers of public interest are raised.