MAKING OUR CITIES `SMART`

EDIT
6
HYDERABAD TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2015
RTI works where legislature fails
TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2015 VOL. 4 | NO. 220
G
Elusive Oscars
I
ndians have been cinema-crazy long before th any given time or place, more
Indians see films, in a score of languages, than they follow cricket, any other
sport or activity. It’s a century-old affair. That many of the winners of the 89th
US Academy Awards, popularly called Oscars, announced on Monday, including
‘Birdman’ and ‘Whiplash’, are currently being
shown in many of the Indian cities, unlike in
Indian filmmakers the last century when one waited for long, is
draw their inspiration an indication of the deep interest that Hollywood has in India, a huge market and a talent
from Hollywood – quite pool, and vice versa.
unabashedly. Indeed, The animated discourse in the run-up to the
Oscars in the mainstream and social media is
no other country can another indication of the deep interest Indiboast of its thriving ans take in Hollywood. Besides the epics, the
and the Mahabharata, and a vast
indigenous versions, Ramayana
and varied literature in different languages,
popularly named Indian filmmakers draw their inspiration
Hollywood – quite unabashedly. Indeed,
“Bollywood”, from
no other country can boast of its thriving in“Tollywood,” digenous versions, popularly named “Bolly“Tollywood,” “Mollywood” et al.
“Mollywood” et al wood”,
India makes over a thousand films annually,
which is twice that of Hollywood. The provision of 100 per cent FDI has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign
enterprises. And yet, Indians, unlike others, have held their own, refusing to
be swamped by Hollywood’s ‘invasion’. Foreign cinema is adapted, even absorbed, something akin to how past military invasions were met.
Indians have not won too many Oscars, though, considering their output.
Mehboob Khan’s “Mother India” and Aamir Khan’s “Lagaan’ lost out after winning nominations. Not many knew Mehboob’s India and cricket the way Aamir
played. For the rest, Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ and Robert Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionnaire” with Indian winners including Bhanu Athaiya (costumes),
Gulzar (lyric “Jai Ho”), A R Rahman (musical score) and Resul Pokutty (sound
editing) are undoubtedly remarkable, but they are like winning mixed doubles
in a game.
When it comes to the Oscars, there is no denying the ‘inadequacies’ in Indiamade films. This is despite the fast-improving technology and ambitions of
many an actor and film maker to covet an Oscar. A successful and growing outreach to a global market that is gradually growing beyond the huge diaspora
has also not helped enough.
At the end of the day, millions have to be spent to make out a case for the Best
Foreign Language Film category. There is politics in Oscars. And there are
American and White Man’s prejudices. Past favourites have included East Europeans (as against Moscow), Taiwanese (to spite China) and those who jump
the barbed wire fencing from Iran, Turkey – any place where ‘freedom is in
peril.”
By and large, Oscar door ast, or a Bridge too Far for Indians. A film maker of
Satyajit Ray’s caliber, feted in Europe, had to wait to get a “lifetime’s
achievement” Oscar in his sickbed.
EDITOR: PROF K NAGESHWAR
ood governance
cannot
happen just like
that. Where indiscipline, dishonesty
and
lethargy are rulMadabhushi ing the roost,
Sridhar
there can be no
governance at all.
People in government do not perform
because they are not questioned by
anybody. Top officers have to review
the work of subordinates. If they are
also lethargic, subordinates feel they
need not work.
If a Cabinet Minister does not
question the officers of the ministry
concerned, the government does not
perform in that department. The
Minister has to be considered as
failed. When a Legislative Assembly
or the Parliament meetings go on,
secretariat and ministries will be
working overtime. One can see the
lights burning at midnight. The reason is they have to prepare answers
to the questions raised by the members. There is no time limit to answer
the questions asked by the legislative
members. When the sessions are convened, the questions received by that
time will be placed in sequence; those
questions will be sent to the department concerned for information. The
secretary or principal secretary has
to compile the correct and complete
answer in writing and prepare additional information for possible supplementary questions. As they cannot
expect all questions that might arise,
they are supposed to be ready on
every aspect of the subject about
which the member sought to know.
The principal secretary has to brief
the Minister about the answer to be
given.
A team of officers from the department will sit in the officer’s gallery
near the Minister while the members
are raising questions. As the session
goes on the officers will be sending
slips with bits and pieces of information relevant to the supplementary
questions to the Minister, so that he
gives accurate information to the
House. This is the real accountability
of the Government to the members
of Legislative Assembly. The Minister
cannot mislead as that amounts to
disrespect. A dynamic legislator is expected to ask for the people. It is pathetic that some MPs were thrown
out of House for taking bribe to ask
questions on behalf of certain corporate houses.
Question hour is thus most important aspect of legislative democracy.
The Right to Information Act 2005 provides for the right
to seek information by the public. It states under
Section 8(1) (j) that the information which cannot be
denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be
denied to any person. This is a very significant
provision. Some argue that this proviso enables a
public authority to refuse to reveal information which
is personal or provisional or does not have any relation
with public. It cannot be. This is so general in its
character that it cannot be confined to be exemption
for information relating to privacy. Reasonable
understanding of this law as explained in the Preamble
leads us to infer that it is general and thus information
that can be given to Parliament shall be given to all
Not only this, the members can raise
an issue of urgent matter in the zero
hour. The house leaves one hour without scheduling anything, so that
members can bring certain serious
problems of immediate importance
to the notice of the Government. A
very serious issue can be taken on priority adjourning all the scheduled
items of agenda, which is called ‘adjournment motion’. This is again, for
compelling the government to give
answers. Besides this there is ‘call attention motion’ where the members
call the attention of the rulers on a
specific issue. There will be several
debates on scheduled subjects or demands or budgetary aspects, at the
end of which the Minister is expected
to answer or declare or clarify. These
are all the powers of the representatives to ask on behalf of the people
who elected them. No confidence
motion, if moved, gives a lot of scope
for questioning the wrongful policies
of the government.
Apart from this there will be Parliamentary Standing Committees
which study working of particular
ministries and give reports which
INBOX
ects. It is also necessary to come to an
understanding with the Government of
Andhra Pradesh for the welfare of the
state and its people. Last but not the
least, the Telangana government should
work in tandem with the media to find
projects and needs of immediate public
importance and focus on saving the
farmers from committing suicides.
Raghu bhushan Eranki,
13-113, Venkatagiri, Hukumpeta,
Rajahmundry
Congress needs fresh blood
C
ongrats to The Hans India photographer for capturing the mood of Congress party on the faces of its state leaders. This refers to the front page
photograph of Congress leaders in on February 21. Boredom, frustration and
dejection are writ large on their faces. The ex-PCC chief Srinivas was lost in
his own thoughts, while Jana Reddy was yawning and VH was in deep sleep
oblivious to the world. All this at the anniversary celebrations of the passage
of the AP State Reorganization Bill in Parliament. The funny photograph reveals anything other than celebration. Congress party has to shed its old baggage and inject young blood, if it hopes for any revival. The old leaders represent all that is ill with the party. It is turning out to be a party devoid of
effective leadership and poor membership.
Vinay Bhushan,
B 1-1- 380/ 38, Ashok Nagar Extn,
Hyderabad-20
Amusing
T
he photograph of the triumvirate of Congress party published in the frontpage of Hans India (Feb. 21) is amusing. It would
KCR seeking to
suppress media
T
elangana Chief Minister KCR’s idea
of imposing restrictions on media
is nothing but his expression of inconvenience to find his rule of law in bad
shape. Media never hesitates to pinpoint politicians’ gimmicks which go
against the welfare of the people and
the same may not be digested by the
leaders and their followers. A politician
should always be able to take both positive and negative criticism in his own
stride to succeed in politics. KCR began
his rule, imposing sanctions on a section
of media indirectly with the support of
master cable operators in the region of
have been appropriate to caption it
with the famous saying, ' Arise,
awake and stop not till the goal is
reached.’
D V Sankara Rao,
Chikkadapalli, Hyderabad.
Telangana. Now once again he expresses his in tolerance against the section of press. Many politicians including Indira Gandhi who tried to put
media to test got unforgettable lessons
in the history. We cannot expect KCR
being a leader of movements to underestimate the media role in democracy.
So long as media supports a leader, they
tend to praise the role of media, and
once they are in power they start finding
fault with the same media if it exposes
them.
Hope KCR who has a strong popularity as Telangana leader would focus on
short-term projects which will immediately stop the suicides of farmers,
while making plans for long term proj-
Derailment of
development
T
he article ‘Derailing growth Engine’
(Feb 20) calls for comprehensive
deliberations on the functioning of our
governments, more particularly National Development Council, Finance
Commission, NITI Aayog etc. As experienced earlier, the plans and proposals
of our various policy-making bodies
were not successful as far as implementation is concerned. Not only in respect
of Railways, several projects relating to
other departments (power, industries,
irrigation etc) also could not be completed in time, thus leaving every scope
for vast increase in the construction
cost of respective projects. This is
mainly due to the changing priorities of
successive governments from time
to time.
Normally, every government gives
priority to take up their own selected
schemes & projects, keeping aside the
ongoing projects which were started by
its predecessor governments. This
causes inordinate delay in completion
of the ongoing projects. The article has
rightly dealt with several railway projects, which were undoubtedly derailed,
due to change in governments from
time to time. There may be a constitutional provision stating that all the projects, which were started by previous
government and already incurred huge
amounts, must be continued by the successive governments also.
Thus, the sanctity of NDC, Finance
Commission, Planning Commission
etc (now, the name may be NITI
Aayog) is lost, because there is no continuity in plans, policies and schemes.
This sort of tendency, based on politi-
would form basis of recommendations for changes in law or lead to
amendments in the enactments.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) will audit the expenditure of departments and find
out the discrepancies, violation of
norms and irregularities. Their objections have to be reviewed by the Public Accounts Committee, headed by
the member of the Opposition who
further give specific recommendations. Any defiance in responding to
the members can be viewed as ‘disrespect’ or ‘contempt’ of the House and
breach of privilege, which might even
lead to imprisonment for a brief period. Almost every step or phase of
proceedings of House fetches important information from the government. On behalf of people, they exercise their right to information by
compelling the officers or minister on
the deterrence of action under breach
of privilege.
If the proceedings in Parliament or
Legislative House is disturbed, disrupted or totally cancelled for any
reason, the information prepared
would be left in the files while Minis-
Email: [email protected]
cal likes and dislikes, is causing the
expenditure to multiply year by year.
T V Nageswara Rao,
Vinayakanagar, Visakhapatnam
Plastic waste
Imran Vs Kejriwal
The much praised and admired ‘Muffler man of Delhi,’ Arvind Kejriwal, has
become the Chief Minister of Delhi with
the help of his broom stick symbol in
the recent elections in Delhi state. Likewise, the playboy cricketer-turnedpolitician Imran Khan is aiming at perfecting dharna politics to become the
"Muffler man of Pakistan.” Both have
challenged the traditional politics. It is
really admiring to learn that both the
leaders took up anti-corruption movements to hit the headlines in the press.
Already Imran Khan achieved name
and fame by building a multi-speciality
cancer hospital, besides leading Pakistan to 1992 World Cup in cricket.
Banda Nageswara Rao,
Hariprasadnagar, Chirala
Telugu cries
for attention
C
ters and officers would heave of sigh
of relief as the ‘difficulty’ is passed off
without happening! This is the most
disturbing aspect.
The Right to Information Act 2005
has provided the right to seek information held by the public authority.
This law specifically stated under Section 8(1) (j) the proviso: provided that
the information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.
This is a very significant provision.
Some argue that this is proviso only
for (j) which enables authority to deny
the information which is personal or
provisional or does not have any relation with public. It cannot be. This is
so general in its character that it cannot be confined to be the exemption
for information relating to privacy.
Reasonable understanding of this law
as explained in the preamble leads us
to inference that it is general and thus
information that can be given to Parliament shall be given to persons.
Whether it is budget session or any
other session, during the process of
meetings of Assembly or Parliament,
huge information from the public offices will be coming out to reach the
people’s representatives. The media
will be reporting numerous news
items about questions and answers
about the functioning of various departments. Unfortunately, now-adays the sessions have become the
battle fields for political parties to
show off their ‘concern’ for the people. Because of that newspapers write
and TV channels talk about the
abuses and unreasonable allegations.
People are losing to know the information about governance.
The right of people’s access to information assumes significance in
this backdrop and the proviso in Section 8 comes to rescue of the people.
A vibrant citizen has to ask for information for the public purpose. It is
not meant to seek personal information or to settle individual grievance.
It may not be wrong to seek redressal
of a grievance, but it is not right even.
System of the governance within it
should include the mechanism to redress grievance of the people. In the
absence of an effective mechanism to
solve the day to day problems of the
people or the problems created by
negligent or irresponsible functioning of the public employees, the citizen is compelled to seek information
about ‘action taken’ on the petition
he made about a problem. The RTI
should be used for improving the governance and to make the government,
department and MLAs or MPs
accountable.
orporate schools and managements
are neglecting Telugu and discourage the Telugu people to speak their
mother tongue. In Vijayawada, our honourable minister Venkaiah Naidu also
eulogized the language. But who neglected Telugu? Venkaiah Naidu established an English Medium School at
Venkatachalam In Nellore district. The
Chief Editor of a prominent daily runs
Telugu magazines including for children.
Both are wonderful magzines. But he
runs an English medium school. Add to
this trend, top officials from other States
speak only English and do not encourage
Telugu. Officials from our own state and
politicians speak highly of Telugu only
on certain days and pay lip service. All
other days, they encourage English language only. Actually mother tongue
learning is essential for every child. It
helps them learn and understand basics
and concepts easily. So both Telugu governments should take steps to introduce
Telugu medium at least up to VI class.
K Ranga Rao, TGT,
Khammam .
near and dear. It is also a feather in the
cap of Modi who went out of his way
to make this miracle happen. I am sure
all the Christian minorities in the
country do heave a sigh of relief and
remember Modi in their prayers.
M Somasekhar Prasad,
Lecturer in English (Retd),
Sumitranagar, Badvel, AP-516227
India puts up
brilliant show
O
I
t is shocking to note that plastic
waste has been increasing gradually
in oceans, which affects marine life as
well as human beings. The matter of
concern is that India is in the 12th position among the 192 coastal countries
in contribution of this menace. Full
ban on plastic use must be implemented by the government and fines
may be imposed on people using plastic bags so that the use of plastic will
be decreased. Also the shopkeepers
must not sell plastic bags to the people
and they must not be lucrative in nature.
K Aravind Naik,
Sainik School, Korukonda,
Vizianagaram.
India secures
release of priest
T
he release of the Indian priest
from the captivity of Taliban is one
of the happiest events happened to us
this year. Securing the release of Alexis
Premkumar from the hardcore Taliban is no mean achievement of Modi's
government. This event also speaks a
lot about the skill and clout of our
diplomats and their staff who left no
stone unturned and made valiant efforts for long months that culminated
inthe safe release of the priest. It goes
without saying that there must also be
some divine intervention somewhere,
thanks to the prayers of Alexis and his
ur Indian team certainly deserves
a pat on their back for winning the
crucial game against strong proteas.
This is really a big win necessary to
consolidate our position in the Group.
The collective attitude of Indian players are appreciated, with the solid contribution from Dhawan and Kohil
without losing early wickets, except
initial hiccup of losing Rohit Sharma.
Though South Africans are strong in
batting, bowling & fielding , the proteas are stifled by meticulous bowling
by Indians. Let India remember the
bitter loss of a World Cup match
against Bangladesh; they must perform to their best ability to remain victorious in the group.
Rama Krishna M,
D.No. 2-15-1, Venkata Nagar,
Kakianda-3
Act firmly against
fraudulent firms
G
ullible people are falling prey to
fraudulent practices of some private chit and financial companies and
other white collar offenders , the latest
being AgriGold and Abhaya (The Hans
India, 22nd February). RBI as the apex
authority should clamp down on such
frauds and educate people against
such nefarious schemes. The RBI
should set up a competent authority
to look into functioning and financing
of such companies and verify if all
rules are complied with. The acts of
law enforcement should be amended
in such a draconian manner as to deter recurrence of such frauds.
M Janardhan Rao,
24-17-43, Durgapuram 4th Cross,
Vijayawada.