PUNE/AURANGABAD, 5 December 2007 — Criticizing the Congress-led Democratic Front government in Maharashtra, veteran social activist Anna Hazare said the state government was doing nothing to promote and propagate the Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI).
Speaking at a function, Hazare criticized Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh saying people in the state were suffering because Deshmukh had lost control over the government and the administration.
Hazare said there was a need to de-centralize political power to empower the people to take action against lethargic government officers.
The centralization of power, Hazare said, has weakened democracy .
“How could ministers and secretaries sitting in Mumbai control the rationing and kerosene distribution system? In government offices, common people are asked to move court to have their problems solved. In this case, people should get power to drag lethargic officers to court,” said Hazare.
Taking the chief minister to task for his government’s failure to propagate the RTI law, Hazare said the state government was least interested in promoting it.
Meanwhile, speaking during a discussion at the India Economic Summit in Delhi on Monday, Deshmukh said that rise of the regional parties across the country was due to the failure of nationalist parties — Congress and the BJP — to reach out to the people.
“If coalitions are here to stay then major political parties have to come together and evolve a common policy for important sectors like the industry and agriculture, which need long-term stability,” he said.
In another development, the first batch of 242 Haj pilgrims flew to Mumbai from Chikalthana airport in Aurangabad, from where they will fly to Jeddah.
According to a State Haj Committee official, 10,018 people from Maharashtra will be performing Haj this year, 1,817 of them are from the Marathwada region. A total of 157,000 pilgrims from India will be traveling for Haj. The number includes 47,000 people who will be performing Haj through private tour operators and agencies.
