RTI museum foundation stone laid in Rajasthan with focus on digital exclusion

Eminent lawyers, former judges and hundreds of people participate in function.

The foundation stone for a people’s Right to Information museum was recently laid at Beawar, the birthplace of the RTI movement, in the presence of eminent lawyers and former judges with focus on digital exclusion in social security pensions. About 13.5 lakh people in Rajasthan have been waiting for release of their pensions, which were stopped following a discrepancy in the digital database.

Hundreds of people from all walks of life gathered in Beawar to attend ‘Jashn-e-Samvidhan’ organised as a festival of democracy and RTI. Former judges Madan B. Lokur, Govind Mathur and S. Muralidhar, lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Prashanto Chandra Sen and social activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey addressed the gathering, while laying emphasis on ensuring social security of vulnerable sections of the population.

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), which has been waging struggles for people’s rights relating to land, minimum wages and forests, had organised a prolonged dharna in Beawar in April-May 1996 demanding an RTI law, when it was unheard of.

The dharna, which lasted for 40 days, went on to become a movement for transparency, accountability and participatory democracy and led to the establishment of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI). The movement forced the Rajasthan government to pass the State RTI Act in 2000, after which Parliament enacted the RTI Act in 2005.

An aesthetically built RTI memorial came up at the dharna venue, Chang Gate, in 2016 to give recognition to peasants and labourers who launched the campaign for their right to know the way the government functioned and spent public money. The RTI museum will be designed with focus on documenting the RTI movement’s history and various provisions in the law.

A stone slab with the Preamble of the Constitution inscribed in Hindi and English was laid on the RTI museum’s land on June 12 this year. Ms. Roy said the museum would function as a resource centre for reference and learning on rights-based movements and serve as a central repository and archive for all the documents, materials and film footage available with the MKSS and other organisations.

Justice Lokur, the former Supreme Court judge, said people from all generations should come together to save the Constitution. “There is no justification for stopping the social security pensions on any ground… It is a form of corruption. Pension for all the eligible people should be restored without delay,” he said.

Activists pointed out that the pensions of about 13.5 lakh people had been cancelled in the State with the reasons marked as ‘dead’ or ‘out of State’ during the annual verification exercise. A large number of the beneficiaries were deprived of their pensions because of a mismatch in the digital database of the Central and State governments.

Mr. Bhushan, public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court, said the space for dissent and protest was being curtailed in the country and the people’s voice was being suppressed. He said the people should fight on the ground and in the courts to secure their rights and hold the bureaucrats and elected representatives accountable.

A tribunal heard the instances of denial of pensions in Beawar and Jawaja on the occasion, while affirming that the loss of pension had left beneficiaries without crucial financial support necessary for food security, old age, disability and health. The MKSS also demanded that the State government notify rules to implement the Minimum Guaranteed Income Act, 2023.

Published - October 23, 2024 11:48 am IST