|
|
The e-Gazette Debate..Views and Opinions
P.S: Since Naavi raised this issue on the website and in some other
e-groups, several views and opinions have been received. These have been
consolidated here. Since these views were given in different fora, the
names of the persons have been withheld and only opinions are expressed.
Once the consent from the writers is obtained, the details may be added.
Naavi
January 23, 2009
| Date |
Person |
View |
| January 19 |
R-1 |
Unfortunately, the body of public opinion is steadfastly turned to an
impression
that the expression "There's no such thing as a free lunch" is
equivalent to
considering that cash is the only compensation of value for every
single little
thing. It completely ignores one fact, that we, as citizens of India,
already
pay for everything twice over, regardless of whether there is a bill
for it or
not.
How so? The parallel economy is generally suggested to be equal to the
registered one, resulting in everyone paying twice over for the same
goods and
services, including those supposed to be part and parcel of deliverance
of good
governance.
The result of this is a firm impression amongst ordinary people, for
whom the
writings of economists are cloaked in mystery (which they are, even to
educated
people, for the greater part), that something for which money is not
paid is
'free'.
The counterpart of this, an impression deeply encouraged ever since the
current
wave of 'liberalisation' began in the early 90s, and which has been
drummed in
continually by successive governments, is that government services
should 'pay
for themselves' by billing citizens.
In the present example, the publication of the Gazette, without which
the
implementation of governance is impossible (can the concerned Ministry
be
unaware of this simple fact?) is sought to be turned into a 'revenue'
item.
While it can be no-one's case that the document in its successive
editions be
delivered for free in paper form to every house and home in India, at
least it
should be accessible for free, when the technology permits. The utter
and
shameful failure of the government to provide free public libraries in
every
town and village in sixty years of independence and democracy can in
some small
part be compensated by at least making essential documentation
accessible
electronically. Indeed, the document should be publicly available in
W3C
compliant formats, as committed by the Government publicly whilst
signing the
relevant UN charter a couple of years back.
Arun Mehta has called separately for an RTI application to be filed,
demanding
to know the action taken by the government since signing the
declaration.
I think that the move to begin an eGazette on billing basis is
retrograde and
deserving of judicial action and universal condemnation by every
concerned
citizen, never mind simply ascertaining the mere fact that they seek to
charge
for it.
|
| |
R-2 |
On Monday 19 Jan 2009, ......wrote:
What licence is the gazette published under? If there's no copyrightand no copy restrictions, it's feasible for an individual (or an
organisation) to keep purchasing the gazette and put it up for download
at no charge on his/her web site. |
| |
R-3 |
Chances are that's at least a copyright violation. If the government
chooses to
prosecute it - which they probably will if they see this as a revenue
stream for
them. |
| |
Naavi |
We are discussing contents in http://egazette.nic.in/
ITA 2000 had already enabled the issue of gazettes in electronic
form.
The website however does not represent the powers under Section 8 of
ITA 2000 but is only publication of e-copies of paper based gazette
notifications. |
| |
R-2 |
I'm referring to the licence of the paper copies, since the same
licence will apply to the soft copies. Would GoI prevent, e.g.
photocopying of the paper copies and redistribution? Or is that
encouraged? If it is forbidden, can they be sure the paper gazettes
don't get photocopied and redistributed in government offices all over
the country? Will they prosecute their own employees if they copy and
share the gazette?
Should we take this to the list? |
| |
R-1 |
"If the latter, then redistribution is not a problem. "
I think it has been clearly pointed out that the gazette contents are
public
notices, for which the government can hardly argue for, or get away
with,
restricting its free distribution. It is therefore axiomatic that the
contents
should be available freely online. From there, citizens can take
whatever they
want at whatever cost they are locally willing to spend: ie if they own
their
own printers, it is the cost of the printing plus some tiny amount for
maintenance of the computer etc; else, it is the service fee paid to
the local
agency.
Equally, other webmasters should be allowed to make the contents
available
within their own online aggregations or commentaries (as long as they
don't
simply make a copy of the gazette blindly, if we assume it is arguably
copyrightable, and citizens are free to merely view it whenever they
need
without printing it unless necessary, and such webmasters are free to
charge for
such analyses and commentaries, if they think it serves a market need,
but
obviously not for the notifications themselves).
In such a scenario, the government is also free to charge for access to
its own
gazette website, if that is what it is legally compelled to do (which I
doubt is
a possibility). However, the relevant notifications must be continue to
be made
freely available from individual ministry websites, as they presumably
are now.
If this is not the intention, then what specific action is needed to
make the
government clarify the situation? |
| |
R-5 |
Other side of the Coin:
1. Nothing should be provided free of cost!! It e-Gazzets costs Govt Rs.
5
crores; they should at least recover Rs. 7 Crores so that they can
provide
things in better ways with more Value Added Services.
2. What Tax we pay is very negligible amount compared with the total
expense
spent for running Govt.
3. We pay Tax to help Govt to run in normal way; but we DO NOT own the
Govt.
4. If some one purchases Rajdhani Ticket from Mumbai to Delhi does not
mean that
passengers own's Railways.
5. Assume Govt looses like this Rs. 5-10 Crores in each & every corner;
what
will happen after few years. |
| |
Naavi |
Dear mr ..
I appreciate your point of view that Government may think of
generating a revenue out of the services it renders.
However making copies of Gazette notifications available to the public
is not a value added service. A citizen is entitled to know what rules
the Government imposes on him and the Gazette notifications contain
these rules.
Secondly, we were paying taxes even before the Government adopted e-Governance measures. There are several services of the Government
which have been privatized (eg Infrastructure services such as road
building etc), Several services have been abandoned (eg: Security of
private industry).
Also e-Governance is expected to reduce the cost of Governance, At
least it should bear the cost of inflation in Government expenditure.
In practice however, we are ending up making more and more tax
payments to get less and less of Government services.
I therefore consider that the Government should not use the e-gazette
publication as a profit making opportunity. If necessary, they can
create value added information services from out of the basic
information available in Government notifications.
The above argument is applicable for several other Government services
including Court judgments which should be made available to the public
free of costs.
For a Government which can write of Rs 60000 crores of agricultural
debts to gain votes unmindful of the huge inflation effect of the
decision, losing Rs 5 crores per annum for providing e-gazettes should
not be an issue. If the Government fully implements its own provision
under Section 8 of ITA 2000, then they can stop publishing the print
version of gazettes and issue only digitally signed e-gazette
notifications. This may reduce the cost of administration rather than
scanning all notifications and putting them up in PDF format on the
website enriching Adobe in the process.
Naavi |
| |
R-6 |
Hello,
I have been a member of cyberlaw4india for I believe 2+ years. I live
and I am from the United States. I have to ask, in respects to the E-Gazzette,
I am seeking further understanding regarding this issue.
1. Is the E-Gazzette a publication of laws for cyber activities?
2. Does India have a public library system, or any place where these
publications can be accessed for the public?
3. Why is there a per annum cost for the E-Gazzette?
|
| |
Naavi |
Dear Friend,
We are discussing the contents of http://egazette.nic.in
This is a website maintained by the Government of India.
In October 2000, India passed Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA
2000) and section 8 of this act enabled Government to publish gazette
notifications in electronic form. However it was as recently as May
2008 when the Government opened the above website which is being
maintained by the same department which was earlier publishing printed
form of gazette notifications.
The Government at this point of time is not using the powers of
section 8 of ITA 2000 which permits them to stop issuing paper based
notifications and issue only digitally signed e-gazette notifications
and maintain an e-archive.
What they are now doing is issue the gazette notification in print
with ordinary signatures, scan them into a PDF document and make it
available for download.
The Government has posted the notifications in PDF format and is
charging per document fee for downloading.
It contains notifications for both Cyber and non Cyber activities of
the Government.
There is no public library of these notifications except normal
libraries who may purchase and make it available to members along with
other books.
The reason for charging a fee is basically to recover costs or perhaps
make profit.
This raises several issues both legal and ethical. Views of experts
are welcome.
There is also a discussion on "Whether the Government can charge a fee
as licensing fee"? Views on this is also welcome.
Naavi |
| |
R-6 |
Thank you for your response. I am not a citizen of your government, and
I hoped not to attempt to make comparisons between the United States
system of governance and taxation. It is a common mistake that many
Americans commit, and that type of arrogance is not what I want to
reflect in my post. However, in providing this disclaimer, perhaps we
can commit to an inquiry into other means and alternatives, that are of
no cost, that could be used to obtain the same type of information? If
no such other means exist, does this possibly leave the citizenry with
the possibility of being blind sided, perhaps committing a crime that
otherwise may not have been committed, had they known that such act was
illegal?
If the publication is not the sole source of new laws, but is the sole
source of knowing the comings and goings of the Indian government,
perhaps now would be the time for me to point out an example here in
the United States, where the very activities of the government are
published and available, thanks to private interaction.
http://www.cspan.org/ is the website to a television channel known as
C-Span. The website is more recent than the actual broadcast service
that was offered by our cable television providers over 30 years ago.
The purpose was to provide transparency to the American public of the
inner workings if the US Congress. The channel provides video content
of congressional sessions and hearings, and this content is also freely
available through the website I have provided. There is also an
extensive set of links which link to various online websites, some
non-profit, some are from the government, which present passed laws
that would be then added, for example, to the US Code. Laws available
in PDF, and for free.
These are efforts that have taken place, not because the cable
television provider is benevolent, but rather, it serves their
interest, in which, by looking favorably to the public, they can gain
profit.
I know it is not my place to suggest this, but can media outlets in
India, or television content providers, unite, and create a similar
service, thereby, reducing government overhead cost for the publication
of the E-Gazzete an transferring it to private organizations, who
would of course not want to charge a fee. Please let me know your
opinions, and thank you.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T |
| |
R-7 |
Thank you for launching an interesting debate.
Why was gazette printed in the first place? To keep people informed
of what government was doing, provide authentic versions of government notification of
Acts, Rules and Regulations,
and also notify transfer and posting of officers. As on date, there
is no justification whatsoever, in my view, in coming out with a print edition of gazette. Let
e-gazette take its place.
(One day it certainly will.)
>Government
may think of generating a revenue out of the services it
renders.
>
Not necessary though. In
government, revenue and expenditure are two different streams. >Also
e-Governance is expected to reduce the cost of Governance
>
It may be true in certain
specific cases, but speaking generally it is not true so far.
Reason? Both p-government (p
for paper) and e-government survive together as a result
of which direct administrative
costs in fact have gone up, and not down.
>What Tax we pay is very
negligible amount compared with the total
expense spent for running Govt.
>
Direct Taxes-Yes; Indirect
Taxes-No.
>We pay Tax to help Govt to
run in normal way; but we DO NOT own
the Govt
>WE AS PEOPLE CERTAINLY OWN THE
GOVERNMENT. Remember, India is a sovereign
democratic republic.And the sovereignty
vests in the people of India.(Incidentally, the Republic
Day is
just a week away!).
|
|
|
