Netas top list of those with cop cover

TNN, Feb 8, 2010, 03.29am IST

MUMBAI: The heydays of gangsters are over but the number of filmstars, businessmen, builders, politicians and others given protection by the Mumbai police has risen by 43 % over the past three years.

The number of protected persons jumped from 253 in 2007 to 316 in 2008 and stood at 361 last year, reveal figures obtained under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

Another striking feature is that politicians outnumber the other three chief categories of protected persons. Last year, as many as 111 politicians had police protection as compared with 51 businessmen, 49 builders and 20 film stars.

“This is surprising as most of those attacked over unfulfilled extortion demands are businessmen and builders. Politicians are seldom harmed by criminals, unless hired by rival politicians,’’ said RTI activist Chetan Kothari, who sought the information.

On an average, politicians account for 30% of all those given protection. But unlike the others, they do not have to pay for it.

The number of film stars with protection went from 14 in 2007 to 20 in 2009. The corresponding figures for businessmen increased from 33 to 51, while those for builders rose from 34 to 49 in these three years which saw mobsters on the run. In fact, the police observed that several gangsters had reverted to robbery.

As many as 557 police personnel—enough to staff an entire police station—are deployed for protection, reveal the latest figures. According to the protection branch, 22 of those provided security had not paid the dues, which collectively amounted to Rs 42.5 lakh.

This, despite the fact that the police rates for protection are a fraction of those charged by private agencies. For instance, a police constable comes as cheap as Rs 400 for an eight-hour shift, while a sub-inspector costs Rs 700.

There are three ranks between the two and the average comes to Rs 650 per eight-hour shift. Going by this, the cost of providing 557 personnel (to protect 361 persons) would amount to Rs 2.35 lakh for an eight-hour shift.

Kothari had also asked for the number of VVIPs who had visited Mumbai over the past three years and the number of policemen used to give security cover for them. The total number of VVIP visits from 2007 to 2009 were 55 and more than 7,200 policemen were deployed for their security. Some of these men were used for lesser persons such as VIPs, ‘distinguished foreigners’ and those enjoying X, Y, Z and Z+ security cover.

According to the protection branch, around 20 officers and 80 men are detailed for protecting a VVIP, whereas a VIP merits 10 and 30 respectively. Those in the Z+ category get four officers and 20 men while ‘distinguished foreigners’ get two officers and four men.

CIC asks minority panel to pay taxi operator for failing to clear dues

TNN, 16 February 2010, 03:43am

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission (CIC) recently awarded Rs 50,000 as compensation to an RTI applicant after he spent two years unsuccessfully chasing taxi bills worth Rs 1 lakh from the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

The information watchdog directed NCM to recover the amount from the salaries of officials who used the taxi services and conduct an investigation into the matter.

RTI applicant Rajeev Gupta had provided taxi services to NCM officials between 2007 and 2008. The commission ran up a bill of Rs 1 lakh but did not verify the bills or make payments due to lack of proper coordination between different NCM departments, the order said.

Ruling that a major concern of the RTI Act has been to promote transparency in functioning of public authorities with a view to ensuring accountability of public servants and authorities as well as to contain corruption of all forms, information commissioner M M Ansari said, "The appellant, a private service provider, has unnecessarily been harassed for about two years for non-payment of bills submitted by him for providing taxi services."

In his order, Ansari said NCM had given "evasive and misleading response" and such attempts could encourage corrupt practices in outsourcing services.

The CIC directed that a compensation of Rs 50,000 be awarded to Gupta within a month failing which penal interest at 10% per annum would be applicable. The NCM is also expected to give a compliance report and order an investigation into the matter.

RTI queries by Tihar inmates make life 'hell' for officials

New Delhi: Inmates of Tihar Prisons are making life "hell" for the authorities as scores of them have filed RTI petitions seeking details of personal lives and assets of certain jail officials. "Prisoners have made life hell with their queries. Of the seven to eight RTI applications that we receive everyday, majority applicants are of our prisoners alone," Sunil Gupta, law officer and spokesperson, Tihar Prisons, said.
He said some of the applications also sought details about the date of release of the inmate concerned. "Many of the applicants keep asking about the amount of savings that a particular officer had in his account, details about the movable and immovable property of any prison official," Gupta said, citing an example about the type of query that came from Tihar inmates. "I fail to understand the purpose of such queries of the prisoner," he said.

Sports Ministry asks IOA, CWG OC to comply with RTI

STAFF WRITER 20:28 HRS IST
New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI)

The sports ministry has asked the Indian Olympic Association and 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to comply with Right to Information Act and immediately appoint Central Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities.The IOA and 2010 CWG OC has been sent communications to this effect in pursuance to the Delhi High Court order of January 7, which has declared both entities as Public Authorities under RTI Act of 2005, a release said today."Both organisations have further been asked to fulfil various obligations of being a Public Authority as per Section 4 of the Right to Information Act 2005, including maintaining all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner so as to facilitate the right to information under this Act and suomoto disclosure/publishing of information pertaining to IOA/OC," the release added.

Hubby can't access wife's treatment details sans consent

Sanjeev Kumar Verma , TNN, 1 February 2010, 03:20am IST

PATNA: Can someone use the Right to Information (RTI) Act to get his spouse's treatment history from a hospital? No, according to Bihar's State Information Commission (SIC) which recently delivered a judgment, first of its kind, saying such an information can be provided to the petitioner only if the spouse consents for it. The SIC judgment is based on different Sections of the RTI Act, 2005 and also on the oath taken by doctors at the time of their registration in which they pledge to respect the secrets confided in them by patients. The case related to one Anil Kumar Sonu whose wife was treated in the government-owned Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). Sonu submitted an application to the PMCH's public information officer (PIO) seeking details of his wife's treatment history. Sources said, Sonu sought the information for using it against his wife in an ongoing litigation. The PIO, however, sought his wife's consent which she did not give. Sonu was denied the information. Sonu then moved the SIC which too upheld the PIO's stand. While delivering the judgment, state's chief information commissioner (CIC) A K Choudhary also quoted from Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and said, "Every patient should be treated with attention and consideration, and the confidence which a physician receives should be guarded with the utmost scrupulous fidelity and honour." Choudhary told TOI on Monday, "The doctor-patient relations are fiduciary relations and the consent of patients must be taken before sharing their treatment details with others. Moreover, doctors while taking the oath at the time of registration pledge to respect the secrets confided in them by patients." In case of minor patients, he said, the consent of the parents or the guardian is a must for such purposes.

President's foreign trips cost much less than her domestic tours

Anil Singh, TNN, 29 January 2010, 10:04pm IST

MUMBAI: Some of President Pratibha Patil's domestic trips have cost more than her overseas tours, going by the figures given by the President's Secretariat to an applicant under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. For instance, the ``tour expenses'' of the President on a five-day visit to Assam and Meghalaya from October 19 to 24 last year are given as Rs 1,35,539 whereas the expenses under the same head on her 14-day trip of Latin America in April 2008 came to Rs 12,878. Another fact that emerges from the reply is that Patil's overseas tour expenses are just a fraction of that of her predecessor, Abdul Kalam. Patil's four visits to eight countries till July 31 last year cost the exchequer Rs 1,95,251 cumulatively whereas each of President Kalam's overseas jaunts between 2004-'07 cost more than Rs one lakh. These are figures culled from a reply given by the President's Secretariat to Chetan Kothari from Mumbai, who had in July last year asked for the expenditure incurred on each of the domestic and foreign trips of the President in the last five years. Of these, Abdul Kalam was the President for the first three years and Patil took over on July 25, 2007. The President's Secretariat says Kalam made six overseas trips between July 01, 2004 and April 28, 2007 and the round figure of the collective tour expenses came to Rs 14 lakhs. This excludes his tour expenses to UAE from November 3-4, 2004, which are not given in the RTI reply. In fact, the reply has raised several questions which have remained unanswered despite clarifications sought by this correspondent from the President's Secretariat. For instance, the Secretariat refused to explain what constitutes `tour expenses' of the President. Archana Datta, officer on special duty in the Secretariat, said in November last year that she would not be able to answer the questions raised by the RTI reply. In fact, the Secretariat stonewalled Kothari too when sought details from them. The Secretariat had not answered Kothari's question about the number of people accompanying the President on trips abroad although they said that 30 to 35 people accompany the President on each domestic visit. The RTI reply given by the President's Secretariat says that the expenses of the President's visits are borne by the respective state governments and by the Ministry of Defence/External Affairs. It also says that there is no cap on the expenditure on the visits. Aviation sources say the President flies abroad either in an Embraer aircraft flown by air force pilots or in a special Air India jumbo jet. Earlier, in February 2009, Kothari asked for the expenses of the Prime Minister on foreign trips over the past five years and the PMO's reply is much more elaborate. For instance, on a trip to USA, Germany and Switzerland from July 16-22, 2005, the PMO spent Rs 11.9 cr on hiring a charter aircraft from AI, Rs 33.9 lakhs on hotline communication facilities and Rs 68,476 on daily allowance, accommodation etc. From November 11-14 in 2005, the PM visited Bangaldesh and the cost of chartering an AI plane came to Rs 3.07 cr while the daily allowance, accommodation etc came to Rs 76,216. The expenditure on hotline is not mentioned as the ``bills had not been received so far''. ``Family members have accompanied the PM on his foreign visits,'' says the reply of the PMO, adding that the government of India bears the expenditure on the foreign tours of the PM. The grand total of the expenses incurred on the PM's 34 foreign excursions from July 29, 2004 to November 10, 2008, comes to Rs 230 crore. The figure would have been slightly higher but the expenses incurred in chartering planes for four trips between September 27 and November 10, 2008 have not been provided. Mumbai RTI activist Krishnaraj Rao says evasive and incomplete replies are not expected from high government offices, least of all the President's Secretariat.