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Achievements of LOK SATTA


Notable Milestones

The specific and tangible achievements and impact of Lok Satta's work are many and varied. But perhaps Lok Satta's most vital contribution is in making even larger and influential sections of Indian population aware of the need for fundamental governance transformation, and the urgency of eliminating the inexhaustible demand for illegitimate funds in the political system.
Lok Satta's strategy has been to work with the government in a very non-judgemental way. Due to its non-strident, rational and reasonable approach, Lok Satta has been able to evolve strategies that truly help the cause.

Some of Lok Satta's important achievements against this background and approach are:

1. Electoral Rolls - Election Commission considers Post Office as Nodal Agency (1999-2002)

The surveys revealed serious flaws in the existing rolls raising doubts on the mandate of our electoral verdicts.

Flawed voters list in India have caused severe dismay and disappointment to thousands of citizens who have been unable to exercise their franchise and encouraged and enabled the corrupt to take advantage. Lok Satta conducted field studies of voter registration defects in AP. Lok Satta's sample survey covering 56 rural and urban polling station areas totaling a sample of over 40,000 voters revealed about 23% errors in rural areas and 44.8% in urban areas.

Voter registration flaws can be corrected by making the process open, verifiable and accessible to citizens. Keeping this in view, Lok Satta suggested to the Election Commissioner that the citizen friendly neighbourhood post office be made the nodal agency for voter registration. They may (1) display and sell of voters' lists for a nominal price (2) make available statutory application forms for adding or deleting names (3) receive applications and forward to the registration authorities. All this would make the process of voter registration and correction of electoral rolls citizen friendly and hassle free.

2. Election Watch- Screening of Candidates for Criminal Record (1999 - 2004)

According to the Election Commission, 1,500 candidates in the 1996 parliamentary election had criminal record and 40 of them got elected to the 11th Lok Sabha. In the state legislatures, the picture was even more distressing: out of the 4,072 sitting MLAs in all the states, more than 700 have established criminal record.
In 1999, Lok Satta launched an innovative campaign, arguably the first of its kind, against criminalization of politics on the eve of the elections to the Lok Sabha and A.P. Legislative Assembly. A team comprising former judges, jurists, civil servants, police officials, media persons and activists was constituted to evolve criteria for judging the criminal antecedents and screening the candidates in the electoral fray. The committee collected information from wide and varied sources namely media, police and public by setting up post box number 100. The public responded very enthusiastically in giving information through 2500 letters. After verification, a list of 45 candidates with criminal record was released, which included many prominent legislators, members of parliament and ministers. The open, transparent and objective process of screening however ensured that no party or candidate dared to question it. An effective tool was thus created by Lok Satta to fight criminalization of politics. This exercise has been continued in all subsequent elections and has been repeated in AP and replicated in 2004 in Maharashtra and Orissa, with Lok Satta's support.

Lok Satta's effort put the issue of criminalization in centre stage and evoked wide interest across the nation. It definitely had generated serious thinking in the major political parties. It cannot be said that nomination of candidates with criminal records has stopped. However, no new candidates with criminal record were nominated.
Election Watch is primarily meant to promote public awareness and people's participation to ensure free and fair elections, promote better choice of candidates by parties and focus public attention on key governance and electoral reforms.
The Delhi High Court judgment of Nov. 2000 directing the Election Commission to collect and disclose to public, criminal records of candidates was largely based on Lok Satta's documentation in 1999. In AP, Lok Satta prepared a draft bill for curbing criminalization of local governments and all parties publicly committed to supporting the Bill. State Election Commission too endorsed Lok Satta's proposal to ban candidature of those against whom charges have been framed by a magistrate, and are pending.

3. Citizen's Charters in Andhra Pradesh Municipalities (2001)

Lok Satta launched the 'Swarajya' movement in 1998 with four components: (i) the publication of a People's Charter covering over 40 public services commonly used by the citizens (ii) public message capsules for broadcasting (iii) citizen neighbourhood watch groups at the grassroots level and (iii) select public demonstration campaigns. This movement prompted the then Andhra Pradesh State government to establish Citizen's Charters in nine departments in 2001. For the first time in India, a citizen could and in fact, did, receive compensation in case of non-delivery of promised service. Over 100 municipalities in Andhra Pradesh are implementing this charter.

Lok Satta has played an active role in propagating the charter all over the state. The government of AP has recently approved a citizen's charter for Village Panchayats. Lok Satta worked with the government in formulating this charter and is working for its effective implementation. Lok Satta is persuading the government to put in place, citizens charters in all departments with public interface.

4. National Campaign for Electoral Reforms (NCER) (2002)

Lok Satta's Election Watch work resulted in a landmark Supreme Court judgment on disclosures on May 2nd, 2002. Lok Satta launched a national campaign, and in a short span of time achieved impressive results such as a broad national coalition - National Campaign for Electoral Reforms - has been formed, with Lok Satta playing the lead role. Lok Satta sensitized media all over the country and there is a perceptible improvement in public awareness and support for electoral reforms. Lok Satta's lead resulted in the President sending back an Ordinance for the reconsideration of the Union Cabinet. Then on 13th March 2003, in a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India upheld Lok Satta's (and co-petitioners PUCL and ADR) contention that section 33B of the RP Act, 1951 is in violation of the constitution as it impinges on the voter's fundamental right to know the antecedents of the candidates seeking election. The court has further ruled that all candidates for legislative office should file a criminal and financial disclosure (assets & liabilities) statement at the time of their nomination. The Election Commission has issued orders to that effect on March 28th.

5. Campaign for Empowerment of Local Governments (2003)

After declaring 2003 as the year of local governments, Lok Satta launched a major campaign across the state calling for genuine devolution of powers. On 26th January 2003, hundreds of sarpanchs hoisted the national flag at the Panchayat offices and asserted their primacy as the head of the village government.
Lok Satta took the initiative to bring together elected heads of local governments at various levels, former heads of local governments and representatives from civil society on an apolitical platform on the 23rd of February in Hyderabad. The day's deliberations led to the formation of the Federation for Empowerment of Local Governments (FELG). Subsequently FELG and LOK SATTA collectively launched a campaign to collect "one crore" (ten million) signatures in support of local government empowerment.

Lok Satta and FELG led a sustained advocacy and people's campaign in 2003, culminating in the '10 million signature campaign' (August 9 - October 2, 2003) that secured 1,06,32,816 endorsements from the citizens of Andhra Pradesh who unequivocally demanded the empowerment of their local governments. On 19th October Lok Satta organized a massive public meeting attended by more than 8000 people, to celebrate this historic achievement of collecting one crore signatures.

The Campaign caused the government to wake up from the stupor, give earnest consideration to the issue. The initial response of the government was quite favourable. However, actions are yet to match the assurances.

7. Procedural Improvements in Indirect Taxes (2005)

Small and medium business enterprises are subjected to enormous harassment and extortion in tax administration resulting in loss to production, productivity and competitive edge. Lok Satta believes that revenue-neutral confidence-building measures would lead to a conducive environment in the interface between business and tax authorities and would remove misapprehensions. Towards this end, an exercise to evolve transparent and assessee-friendly reforms in Central Excise and Customs was taken up by Lok Satta in collaboration with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Keeping in mind the CVC's and the CBEC's interest in introducing reforms, which would simplify procedures and improve the functioning and efficiency of the Customs and Central Excise departments, Lok Satta prepared an agenda for simplification of procedures. This agenda was based on the highly satisfying outcome and consensus generated at the interactions at Hyderabad and Mumbai between CBEC and industry. Now, the CVC has asked Lok Satta to take up a similar exercise to reform the Direct Taxation and Provident Fund structures in the country.

8. Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) (2005)

Ever since 2001, Lok Satta has been at the forefront of creating awareness on Right to Information, prompting a commitment from the State government to enact a law. Lok Satta prepared a draft law based on a series of consultation meets with jurists, politicians, media and civil society and widely publicized it across the state to create awareness and mobilize public opinion. While making a presentation before the Parliamentary Committee on Right to Information on 14th February 2005, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan made a strong case for bringing State and Local governments within the purview of the Bill and also suggested there should also be reasonable civil penalties for non-compliance and, a quick and fair compensation to the citizens for non-supply of information.

The Right to Information Bill was finally passed by the Parliament and became fully effective on 12nd October 2005. To sensitize the citizens, Lok Satta has undertaken a major public awareness campaign in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ), AP Press Academy and Center for Good Governance (CGG). The electronic media in the state is airing - free of charge - the video clips produced by Lok Satta.

9. Active Citizens' Training (2005)

Lok Satta strongly believes that local problems need local solutions. And the community has a vital role to play in resolving these problems. Informed, collective assertion is a potent tool available to the community. As a part of the effort to sensitize citizens in this regard, Lok Satta took up a massive training programme and trained about 80,000 citizens across the state over a four-year period 2001- 2005.

Launched in May 2001, this program with funding from the Ratan Tata Trust (RTT), Mumbai, initially held a series of 'training for trainers' workshops at the state and district level, involving committed, respected citizens. They in turn trained citizens, from all walks of life, at the district, mandal and village levels, clearly explaining that the aim of the meetings was not to solve their problems but to give trainees the long-term ability to tackle governance problems themselves. The typical 'Active Citizen's Training Program' attracted around 30-50 adult citizens and lasted for about 5 hours. The training 'syllabus' was designed to help trainees gain a clear understanding of key local (civic) issues, as well as the relationship between achieving progress and the need for essential democratic reforms.


 

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