Right to information

A revolutionary act is being implemented from october 12th all over India.It is Right to information act.This act enables any ordinary citizen to ask for as his right any information which is relevant or material to him.Each office has a specific official who is named information official(no,not again!) and it is expected that the govt,civic society and the media would work in coordination to make government function transparently.
Yes, I have attended a few meetings and read reams of newsprint about this act.It could be abused is what senior government officials feel and they feel that they would not like to take bold decisions(when was the last time that they did that anyway!) and would play safe.The public are wary and feel the bureaucracy will find ingenuine ways to scuttle this power in the hands of the public.When was the last time public servants really serve the public,you may wonder.
But there have been some pockets of influence like in Bangalore where the citizens do approach the government with a demand to show them how allocation to various projects have been spent.I do recall long back when a journalist visited Brazil,he was taken around the slum areas. There he was able to see a new initiative that the public have taken.Whenever a government project for a particular locality is sanctioned,the local youth wing gets involved in the project.They continuously monitor the execution of the project,and see that it gets completed without delay.This was more than 6 years back.
So this act could usher in unimaginable changes in the way govt functions and govt functioneries take decisions and monitor implementation.
And the scene shifts to citizens waking up from their rip van winkle slumber and indifference.