তথ্য অধিকার আইন

The Daily Star, Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz

The arrest and imprisonment of a journalist last month in Sherpur District over his request under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009 has rattled concerned citizens. According to media reports, on March 5, Shafiuzzaman Rana, a correspondent for Bangla daily Desh Rupantor went to the office of the Nokla UNO (Upazila Executive Officer) to submit an RTI application about the purchase of computers and laptops under a government project. Rana asked for a receipt of the application, but the office assistant asked him to wait till the arrival of the UNO, who was at a meeting. This apparently led to heated discussions between the two, upon which Rana called the deputy commissioner of the district directly to complain.

Hearing the commotion, the UNO returned to her office and a more serious altercation broke out between the two sides. Nokla police were called in and Rana was quickly arrested for misbehaviour with public officials. With equal alacrity, a mobile court conducted by the assistant commissioner (land) sentenced Rana to six months’ imprisonment and ordered the seizure of his two mobile phones. He was charged with “trespassing into a government office, causing commotion, obstructing government work, creating a disorderly situation, and misconduct.” Read more

The Daily Star, Friday, March 15, 2024

Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz

Office-goers in Dhaka’s Agargaon area were frustrated by a makeshift mini market that had sprung up on the sidewalks outside their buildings, and annoyed by the stench, trash, and blood from the slaughtering of chickens right in front. After several attempts to end the ordeal, an employee of the University Grants Commission (UGC), one of the offices in the neighbourhood, resorted to the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He sent an information request to the Designated Officer (DO) of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) seeking a copy of the authorisation provided to run the market—and if none was obtained, to know what measures were taken for its eviction.

The next day, the market was gone. A very polite Designated Officer of DNCC called the applicant to reassure him that the closure was permanent. It would have been better, though, if the applicant had insisted on a written reply as that would most likely have led to in-depth discussions on the subject within the DNCC hierarchy Read more

The Daily Star, Thursday, February 15, 2024

Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz

People living along the road from Garments Bazar to Boideshirhat in Chirirbandar upazila, Dinajpur were fed up. Road repairs, which began in 2018, had been going on for five years. So, in June 2023, a group of right to information (RTI) activists from the region decided to use the RTI process to try and resolve the inconvenience caused to local residents. Naushad Hossain and a number of his colleagues submitted separate RTI requests to the designated officer (DO) of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Dinajpur. They asked, inter alia, for information including the budget and time frame for the road construction project, the reasons for the delay and the measures taken—if any—to alleviate inconvenience for residents, and to penalise the contractor and government officials involved for their role in the delay. They also wanted to know if and how the public was kept informed.

The RTI law stipulates a time frame for responses to such queries, and Naushad received only partial information within this period, so he launched an appeal to the higher authority of the LGED office. Receiving no response, he filed a complaint to the Information Commission (IC). At its hearing on December 18, 2023, the commission noted the discrepancies between the information sought by Naushad and those provided in the partial disclosure by the DO. Read more

The Daily Star, Monday, January 15, 2024

Shamsul Bari and Ruhi Naz

In Bangladesh, a new government has just been sworn in. Elections are held to establish an agreement between electors and the elected to form a government which will run the affairs of the state on behalf of the people for the next few years. The basic element of the agreement is the accountability of the government to the people. Accountability is the pillar on which the entire edifice of democracy is built. It is no surprise, therefore, that the election manifesto of the winning Awami League contained the word “accountable” in its pledge to the nation “to build a public welfare-oriented, accountable and efficient system of governance, with zero tolerance for corruption.” Citizens should help the new government fulfil this commitment. And, fittingly, we have a law that was put in place for this very purpose.

As governments become more adept at manipulating democratic institutions to advance their own goals, mechanisms have evolved to curb such tendencies, such as “right to information” or “freedom of information” laws. These impose a legally enforceable responsibility on governments to ensure transparency in their work and accountability to the people they serve. Read more