Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), July 22: Social activist
Anna Hazare on Saturday threatened to return his Padma Bhushan in
protest against the functioning of Capart and to launch a
nation-wide agitation if the government made changes to the
Right to Information Act.
He threatened to return the award on Kranti Din (August
9) but said he would take a final decision after visiting
Delhi to meet senior leaders there.
Before leaving for Delhi, Hazare said at Ralegen
Siddhi village, 39 km from Ahmednagar, that he had written a
letter about a fortnight ago to Union Rural Development
Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, criticising the working of
the council for advancement of people's action and rural
technology.
He said the body's officials were not acting on proposals
from NGOs for the development of rural areas. "Some top
officials and bureaucrats have decided not to cooperate to the
potential of Capart only because of their unethical work
culture," he said.
He also criticised the government's decision to amend
the RTI Act, saying he was "upset and disappointed" by the
move.
"The Central government will damage the soul of the right
to information act if the proposal to change it gets the
sanction," the anti-corruption crusader said.
If the government went ahead with the proposed changes,
Hazare said he would launch a nation-wide protest with
like-minded NGOs and civil society groups.
During his visit to Delhi, he will try to meet Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, Hazare said.
The decision to amend the RTI Act was taken following the objections raised by some government organisations like the UPSC that file notings should not be made public, Information & Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had told reporters earlier.
The organisations had opined that decisions taken could be conveyed, but not in terms of the details as to how the decisions were arrived at. “Decisions can be conveyed, not in terms of details about what the Under Secretary or Joint Secretary wrote or what the Secretary disapproved”, Dasmunsi had said.
The only exception would be file notings on social and development issues, he had said, adding that under the Act, notings by Secretaries on all files used to be provided.
The Act, the brain-child of the now defunct National Advisory Council, headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, had been hailed as one of the biggest achievements of the Manmohan Singh government in bringing transparency and accountability.
Amid indications that Sonia Gandhi is not happy with the controversial amendment to the RTI Act approved by the Union Cabinet keeping out file notings by officials, the party is treading cautiously on the issue saying it backed the move as long as "the heart and soul" of the law is preserved.
"There is no question of our endorsing or not endorsing. It is a government decision and we are not in a position to dissent from that so long as the heart and soul of the act is preserved", party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi had told reporters in reply to a volley of questions on the issue.
Bureau Report