Achievements
of LOK SATTA
People
Mobilization
Lok
Satta strongly believes in advocating and practising sustainable
and replicable activities. Lok Satta provides a platform to citizens
who basically subscribe to the ideology of Lok Satta and form
themselves into groups/associations. Lok Satta provides them with
inputs to identify the community needs, prioritizing them, and
getting them fulfilled through participatory action and informed
collective assertion.
Lok Satta's pioneering initiatives 'Election Watch', 'Screening
of Electoral Candidates' and 'Know your Candidates' starting in
1998/99 were subsequently taken up and adopted by like-minded
civil society organizations and the electronic media during subsequent
elections. Sustained advocacy, people's mobilization coupled with
approaching the courts led to the historic judgments at the Delhi
High Court (2000) and the Supreme Courts (2002 and 2003) where
the voters right to know the antecedents of an electoral candidate
were declared as being integral to the fundamental rights. These
rulings later led to the Disclosure Law. Lok Satta's Election
Watch campaign has been replicated in states like Maharashtra,
West Bengal, Orissa, etc. Lok Satta is optimistic about such initiatives
in other states as well.
Lok Satta Chapters are set up in Maharashtra and Gujarat and few
others are in the offing.
Lok Satta carried out research in various aspects and issues related
to governance on an ongoing basis. Papers are published and thoughts
and ideas vocalized through the use of varied media. Lok Satta's
draft laws and bills have been widely recognized and have formed
the basis on which perform research and documentation functions,
Lok Satta has helped form the ground for interactive public discourse.
The demand for empowerment of local government is made sustainable
by the organization of Federation for Empowerment of Local Governments
(FELG) and separate federations for elected women representatives.
In the elections held for urban local governments in AP (2005)
Lok Satta initiated the concept of People's Charters. Various
public services and civic amenities in the urban area were analyzed
in detail. And a charter listing out what the people what and
their priorities was prepared. The charter was given to the competing
candidates seeking their commitment. Lok Satta proposes to hold
periodic dialogue with elected representatives and make them accountable.
The concept caught the imagination of major political parties
in the state, which came up with their manifesto for each urban
area.
Lok Satta advocated citizen's charters to bring transparency to
the working of the government departments and facilitate ease
of interface for the citizen. Citizen's charters are being introduced
in all the government departments and the RTI Act gives further
fillip. Lok Satta believes that citizen's charters should become
a basic feature of governance.
Similarly, Lok Satta's quiet advocacy for making political funding
transparent and open was scaled up as a national advocacy cause
and later led to the enactment of a progressive funding reform
law. The campaign to improve the integrity of the electoral rolls,
make them easily accessible to citizens on a permanent basis initially
grew out of Lok Satta's state-level initiative that was later
taken up by the Election Commission and the Department of Posts.
Now, post offices have been declared as nodal agencies for accessing
electoral rolls.
Lok Satta strongly believes in advocating and practising sustainable
and replicable activities. Lok Satta provides a platform to citizens
who basically subscribe to the ideology of Lok Satta and form
themselves into groups/associations. Lok Satta provides them with
inputs to identify the community needs, prioritizing them, and
getting them fulfilled through participatory action and informed
collective assertion.
Lok Satta's pioneering initiatives 'Election Watch', 'Screening
of Electoral Candidates' and 'Know your Candidates' starting in
1998/99 were subsequently taken up and adopted by like-minded
civil society organizations and the electronic media during subsequent
elections. Sustained advocacy, people's mobilization coupled with
approaching the courts led to the historic judgments at the Delhi
High Court (2000) and the Supreme Courts (2002 and 2003) where
the voters right to know the antecedents of an electoral candidate
were declared as being integral to the fundamental rights. These
rulings later led to the Disclosure Law. Lok Satta's Election
Watch campaign has been replicated in states like Maharashtra,
West Bengal, Orissa, etc. Lok Satta is optimistic about such initiatives
in other states as well.
Lok Satta Chapters are set up in Maharashtra and Gujarat and few
others are in the offing.
Lok Satta carried out research in various aspects and issues related
to governance on an ongoing basis. Papers are published and thoughts
and ideas vocalized through the use of varied media. Lok Satta's
draft laws and bills have been widely recognized and have formed
the basis on which perform research and documentation functions,
Lok Satta has helped form the ground for interactive public discourse.
The demand for empowerment of local government is made sustainable
by the organization of Federation for Empowerment of Local Governments
(FELG) and separate federations for elected women representatives.
In the elections held for urban local governments in AP (2005)
Lok Satta initiated the concept of People's Charters. Various
public services and civic amenities in the urban area were analyzed
in detail. And a charter listing out what the people what and
their priorities was prepared. The charter was given to the competing
candidates seeking their commitment. Lok Satta proposes to hold
periodic dialogue with elected representatives and make them accountable.
The concept caught the imagination of major political parties
in the state, which came up with their manifesto for each urban
area.
Lok Satta advocated citizen's charters to bring transparency to
the working of the government departments and facilitate ease
of interface for the citizen. Citizen's charters are being introduced
in all the government departments and the RTI Act gives further
fillip. Lok Satta believes that citizen's charters should become
a basic feature of governance.
Similarly, Lok Satta's quiet advocacy for making political funding
transparent and open was scaled up as a national advocacy cause
and later led to the enactment of a progressive funding reform
law. The campaign to improve the integrity of the electoral rolls,
make them easily accessible to citizens on a permanent basis initially
grew out of Lok Satta's state-level initiative that was later
taken up by the Election Commission and the Department of Posts.
Now, post offices have been declared as nodal agencies for accessing
electoral rolls.
