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Achievements
of LOK SATTA
Notable
Milestones
The
specific and tangible achievements and impact of Lok Satta's work
are many and varied. But perhaps Lok Satta's most vital contribution
is in making even larger and influential sections of Indian population
aware of the need for fundamental governance transformation, and
the urgency of eliminating the inexhaustible demand for illegitimate
funds in the political system.
Lok Satta's strategy has been to work with the government in a very
non-judgemental way. Due to its non-strident, rational and reasonable
approach, Lok Satta has been able to evolve strategies that truly
help the cause.
Some
of Lok Satta's important achievements against this background and
approach are:
1. Electoral Rolls - Election Commission considers Post Office
as Nodal Agency (1999-2002)
The
surveys revealed serious flaws in the existing rolls raising doubts
on the mandate of our electoral verdicts.
Flawed
voters list in India have caused severe dismay and disappointment
to thousands of citizens who have been unable to exercise their
franchise and encouraged and enabled the corrupt to take advantage.
Lok Satta conducted field studies of voter registration defects
in AP. Lok Satta's sample survey covering 56 rural and urban polling
station areas totaling a sample of over 40,000 voters revealed about
23% errors in rural areas and 44.8% in urban areas.
Voter
registration flaws can be corrected by making the process open,
verifiable and accessible to citizens. Keeping this in view, Lok
Satta suggested to the Election Commissioner that the citizen friendly
neighbourhood post office be made the nodal agency for voter registration.
They may (1) display and sell of voters' lists for a nominal price
(2) make available statutory application forms for adding or deleting
names (3) receive applications and forward to the registration authorities.
All this would make the process of voter registration and correction
of electoral rolls citizen friendly and hassle free.
2.
Election Watch- Screening of Candidates for Criminal Record (1999
- 2004)
According
to the Election Commission, 1,500 candidates in the 1996 parliamentary
election had criminal record and 40 of them got elected to the 11th
Lok Sabha. In the state legislatures, the picture was even more
distressing: out of the 4,072 sitting MLAs in all the states, more
than 700 have established criminal record.
In 1999, Lok Satta launched an innovative campaign, arguably the
first of its kind, against criminalization of politics on the eve
of the elections to the Lok Sabha and A.P. Legislative Assembly.
A team comprising former judges, jurists, civil servants, police
officials, media persons and activists was constituted to evolve
criteria for judging the criminal antecedents and screening the
candidates in the electoral fray. The committee collected information
from wide and varied sources namely media, police and public by
setting up post box number 100. The public responded very enthusiastically
in giving information through 2500 letters. After verification,
a list of 45 candidates with criminal record was released, which
included many prominent legislators, members of parliament and ministers.
The open, transparent and objective process of screening however
ensured that no party or candidate dared to question it. An effective
tool was thus created by Lok Satta to fight criminalization of politics.
This exercise has been continued in all subsequent elections and
has been repeated in AP and replicated in 2004 in Maharashtra and
Orissa, with Lok Satta's support.
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Lok
Satta's effort put the issue of criminalization in centre stage
and evoked wide interest across the nation. It definitely had
generated serious thinking in the major political parties. It
cannot be said that nomination of candidates with criminal records
has stopped. However, no new candidates with criminal record
were nominated.
Election Watch is primarily meant to promote public awareness
and people's participation to ensure free and fair elections,
promote better choice of candidates by parties and focus public
attention on key governance and electoral reforms.
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Delhi High Court judgment of Nov. 2000 directing the Election
Commission to collect and disclose to public, criminal records
of candidates was largely based on Lok Satta's documentation
in 1999. In AP, Lok Satta prepared a draft bill for curbing
criminalization of local governments and all parties publicly
committed to supporting the Bill. State Election Commission
too endorsed Lok Satta's proposal to ban candidature of those
against whom charges have been framed by a magistrate, and are
pending. |
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3.
Citizen's Charters in Andhra Pradesh Municipalities (2001)
Lok
Satta launched the 'Swarajya' movement in 1998 with four components:
(i) the publication of a People's Charter covering over 40 public
services commonly used by the citizens (ii) public message capsules
for broadcasting (iii) citizen neighbourhood watch groups at the
grassroots level and (iii) select public demonstration campaigns.
This movement prompted the then Andhra Pradesh State government
to establish Citizen's Charters in nine departments in 2001. For
the first time in India, a citizen could and in fact, did, receive
compensation in case of non-delivery of promised service. Over 100
municipalities in Andhra Pradesh are implementing this charter.
Lok
Satta has played an active role in propagating the charter all over
the state. The government of AP has recently approved a citizen's
charter for Village Panchayats. Lok Satta worked with the government
in formulating this charter and is working for its effective implementation.
Lok Satta is persuading the government to put in place, citizens
charters in all departments with public interface.
4.
National Campaign for Electoral Reforms (NCER) (2002)
Lok
Satta's Election Watch work resulted in a landmark Supreme Court
judgment on disclosures on May 2nd, 2002. Lok Satta launched a national
campaign, and in a short span of time achieved impressive results
such as a broad national coalition - National Campaign for Electoral
Reforms - has been formed, with Lok Satta playing the lead role.
Lok Satta sensitized media all over the country and there is a perceptible
improvement in public awareness and support for electoral reforms.
Lok Satta's lead resulted in the President sending back an Ordinance
for the reconsideration of the Union Cabinet. Then on 13th March
2003, in a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India upheld
Lok Satta's (and co-petitioners PUCL and ADR) contention that section
33B of the RP Act, 1951 is in violation of the constitution as it
impinges on the voter's fundamental right to know the antecedents
of the candidates seeking election. The court has further ruled
that all candidates for legislative office should file a criminal
and financial disclosure (assets & liabilities) statement at
the time of their nomination. The Election Commission has issued
orders to that effect on March 28th.
5.
Campaign for Empowerment of Local Governments (2003)
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After
declaring 2003 as the year of local governments, Lok Satta
launched a major campaign across the state calling for genuine
devolution of powers. On 26th January 2003, hundreds of sarpanchs
hoisted the national flag at the Panchayat offices and asserted
their primacy as the head of the village government.
Lok Satta took the initiative to bring together elected heads
of local governments at various levels, former heads of local
governments and representatives from civil society on an apolitical
platform on the 23rd of February in Hyderabad. The day's deliberations
led to the formation of the Federation for Empowerment of
Local Governments (FELG). Subsequently FELG and LOK SATTA
collectively launched a campaign to collect "one crore"
(ten million) signatures in support of local government empowerment.
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Lok
Satta and FELG led a sustained advocacy and people's campaign
in 2003, culminating in the '10 million signature campaign'
(August 9 - October 2, 2003) that secured 1,06,32,816 endorsements
from the citizens of Andhra Pradesh who unequivocally demanded
the empowerment of their local governments. On 19th October
Lok Satta organized a massive public meeting attended by more
than 8000 people, to celebrate this historic achievement of
collecting one crore signatures.
The
Campaign caused the government to wake up from the stupor,
give earnest consideration to the issue. The initial response
of the government was quite favourable. However, actions are
yet to match the assurances.
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7.
Procedural Improvements in Indirect Taxes (2005)
Small
and medium business enterprises are subjected to enormous harassment
and extortion in tax administration resulting in loss to production,
productivity and competitive edge. Lok Satta believes that revenue-neutral
confidence-building measures would lead to a conducive environment
in the interface between business and tax authorities and would
remove misapprehensions. Towards this end, an exercise to evolve
transparent and assessee-friendly reforms in Central Excise
and Customs was taken up by Lok Satta in collaboration with
the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Central Board
of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
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Keeping
in mind the CVC's and the CBEC's interest in introducing reforms,
which would simplify procedures and improve the functioning
and efficiency of the Customs and Central Excise departments,
Lok Satta prepared an agenda for simplification of procedures.
This agenda was based on the highly satisfying outcome and consensus
generated at the interactions at Hyderabad and Mumbai between
CBEC and industry. Now, the CVC has asked Lok Satta to take
up a similar exercise to reform the Direct Taxation and Provident
Fund structures in the country. |
8.
Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) (2005)
Ever
since 2001, Lok Satta has been at the forefront of creating awareness
on Right to Information, prompting a commitment from the State government
to enact a law. Lok Satta prepared a draft law based on a series
of consultation meets with jurists, politicians, media and civil
society and widely publicized it across the state to create awareness
and mobilize public opinion. While making a presentation before
the Parliamentary Committee on Right to Information on 14th February
2005, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan made a strong case for bringing State
and Local governments within the purview of the Bill and also suggested
there should also be reasonable civil penalties for non-compliance
and, a quick and fair compensation to the citizens for non-supply
of information.
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The
Right to Information Bill was finally passed by the Parliament
and became fully effective on 12nd October 2005. To sensitize
the citizens, Lok Satta has undertaken a major public awareness
campaign in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh Union of Working
Journalists (APUWJ), AP Press Academy and Center for Good
Governance (CGG). The electronic media in the state is airing
- free of charge - the video clips produced by Lok Satta.
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9.
Active Citizens' Training (2005)
Lok
Satta strongly believes that local problems need local solutions.
And the community has a vital role to play in resolving these problems.
Informed, collective assertion is a potent tool available to the
community. As a part of the effort to sensitize citizens in this
regard, Lok Satta took up a massive training programme and trained
about 80,000 citizens across the state over a four-year period 2001-
2005.
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Launched
in May 2001, this program with funding from the Ratan Tata Trust
(RTT), Mumbai, initially held a series of 'training for trainers'
workshops at the state and district level, involving committed,
respected citizens. They in turn trained citizens, from all
walks of life, at the district, mandal and village levels, clearly
explaining that the aim of the meetings was not to solve their
problems but to give trainees the long-term ability to tackle
governance problems themselves. The typical 'Active Citizen's
Training Program' attracted around 30-50 adult citizens and
lasted for about 5 hours. The training 'syllabus' was designed
to help trainees gain a clear understanding of key local (civic)
issues, as well as the relationship between achieving progress
and the need for essential democratic reforms. |
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