Waiting RTI Bill
THOUGH the 1990 Constitution following the
restoration of democracy has spoken clearly of the citizen’s inviolable right to
information, Nepal continues to languish in a situation where that right is not respected.
Article 16 of the Constitution categorically states that every citizen shall have the
right to demand and receive any information on any matter of public importance. As far as
Constitutions go, even in many of the advanced countries in the world, the right to
information is not as unambiguously guaranteed as by the Nepalese Constitution.
Notwithstanding this, it has taken an unconscionable time for the Nepalese parliament to
get around to giving the people a Right to Information (RTI Act without which this
guarantee from the Constitution cannot be put into practice in everyday lives of the
people. In absence of such an Act, the public offices have continued to be extremely
stingy with information of public importance. As a consequence, the right of the citizens
to demand and receive information remains a mere clause in the statute. The inherent lack
of democratic culture in the government machinery makes it almost impossible for the
common citizens to extricate information relating to public interest. The only route that
the common citizens can take to get the government to be transparent vis-à-vis particular
matter is by knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court which has made the ruling, action
on a writ petition in the past, that the government activities, actions and decisions that
directly or indirectly affect the people must be presented to the public. Yet,
stonewalling on a request for information is more the norm than sharing the same.
The situation will continue as it is unless
we have a well-formulated Right to Information Act. Civil society organisations have over
the past years demanded the passage of such an Act and for obvious reasons media
organisations particularly have been in the vanguard rooting for such an Act. Actually,
the latter have even drafted a bill in this regard and presented it to the government.
Those wishing for a speedy passage of such an Act would be heartened by Minister for
Information and Communication Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta’s assurance in the parliament
on Thursday that the government was going to soon propose a bill on the Right to
Information. It is to be hoped that the long wait for such an Act is going to be over in
the near future.
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