THOUGH ELECTED people’s representatives believe that the Right to Information Act (RTIA) is a potent weapon against prevailing corruption, they are reluctant to provide details of the use of MLA and MP funds. They said it was not possible for them to provide information to every voter of his or her constituency.
They were expressing their views in a seminar on “The role of Elected People’s Representative and Right To Information Act. The seminar was organised by Gaon Gati Aur Hum, a social organization, at Sambad Bhawan, DDU University on Sunday.
Seminar coordinator Alok Singh and Utkarsh Kumar invited seven MLAs and MLCs of Gorakhpur district but only four participated in this seminar. Expressing their views, BSP MLA GM Singh and independent MLA Jitendra Jaiswal alias Pappu Jaiswal said that it was not possible for the elected representative to publish the use of their funds.
MLC Ganesh Shanker Pandey also highlighted the features of the RTI Act. He said, “After 59 year of independence, people have got the most valuable right to maintain a vigil on the government officials and peoples representatives.”
He also stressed the need to educate the people regarding furnishing the forms to get the information from the government office and said a series of campaign should be launched. He also promised to help in organising camps at block levels.
Local MLA Dr RMD Agrawal admitted that people representatives could play a vital role in popularising the Act but he said no MLA would ever disclose that about one dozen cases of murder had been registered against him in the police stations. He said the representative would not disclose how they earn huge money disproportionate to there know sources of income.
He also stressed the need to educate the people regarding furnishing the forms to get the information from the government office and said a series of campaign should be launched. He also promised to help in organising camps at block levels.
Local MLA Dr RMD Agrawal admitted that people representatives could play a vital role in popularising the Act but he said no MLA would ever disclose that about one dozen cases of murder had been registered against him in the police stations. He said the representative would not disclose how they earn huge money disproportionate to there know sources of income.
He said the Election Commission should take initiative to provide information to the people regarding movable and immovable property of the candidates contesting the elections.
BSP MLA Sadal Prasad and SP MLA Kamlesh Paswan said the Act would benefit the poor and people of rural areas. They also promised all help from their side in making effective use of this Act by the people, which would put a brake on arbitrary attitude of the people’s representatives.