A hassle-free step-by-step guide to deal with the EPFO

Moneylife: Pune: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

While the EPFO’s interaction with subscribers has improved, much remains to be done with what is essentially supposed to function like a bank but ends up like a tax authority. This is a guide to an essentially hassle-free experience to obtain details of EPFO

One of the biggest issues I faced with employees, as the head of a small software company, was the reality of deductions for the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Many youngsters working in my company, benchmarking their “take-home” with their counterparts elsewhere, that employers often paid lump sum amounts to ‘consultants’. The EPFO viewed this component as a “tax deduction”. Considering the way the EPFO used to function, and often still does, making genuine withdrawals a kafkaesque procedure, in which people had to literally beg for their own money.

That aspect of the perceptions—that the EPFO will make it extremely difficult for you to get your own money back—as well as the realities of life, still persist. The forms required to be filled in for withdrawal, for example, are ancient, difficult to understand and mired in red-tape. An “advance receipt” filled in with the columns for amounts kept blank and requires the subscriber to accept whatever will be paid without demur. The methods used to calculate interest earned are also kept deliberately shielded. These are certainly not subscriber-friendly. Of course, personal interaction is still a mess. The “Public Relations Officer” behaves more like somebody running an inquisition, with touts all over the place.

However, to give one of the most moribund and closed organisations due credit, one must say “thank you” to the people on top for having literally forced their way to induce some improvements. For example, getting to know the balance in your account is now as simple as going through a one-step procedure online (http://www.epfindia.com/membbal.html), where all that is required is your subscriber/member account number, name as spelt and a mobile number. Within a few minutes your balance will be displayed to you on your mobile phone by SMS. The downside is that the balance is updated only until 31 March of the most recent financial year, so you really do not know how to keep track of exact balance as well as rate of interest applied, and a host of other details.

Your EPFO savings could be at risk, unless you secure some important aspects yourself. To read what these are, click here.

If you want a detailed year-by-year statement, like a bank passbook, which is what it should be like ideally, then you will still need to file a Right to Information (RTI) application (http://www.epfindia.com/sites/pdf/RTI_1.pdf). This is also not very difficult—you can do so by post or going to the nearest EPFO office (http://www.epfindia.com/rti_officers.html). It is good to do so as it keeps them as well as your employers on their toes that as though somebody is keeping a watch on them.

Likewise, filing a claim for repayment has always been a tough job, and even now you don’t really get a numbered receipt. All you get is a rubber-stamp on what looks like a registered acknowledgement due card, and given to you by hand. This is pretty much worthless and, in the past, you could go round and round to find out where your claim form had gone. Now, once again, all you need to do is to go online, fill in the bare details, and you get not just your claim reference number, but also the position on where the claim has reached (http://www.epfindia.com/claimstatus_new.html). Here again, if you find that your claim is not moving, then a simple RTI application with the claim reference number, asking for the status of the claim, is enough to motivate the mandarins at your EPFO office. This works very well, and I can attest to it, having guided a number of people along this route.

Another important matter to keep track of is to ensure that the amount deducted from your salary is being remitted by your employers into the EPFO account. To do this, you will need to match your deductions with your balances and, if in doubt, ask the EPFO office. This, again, is best done through the RTI route.

Agreed, much of the information provided is not up-to-date, very often the claim status will just state “in process”. But at least you have some quantitative information to start with.

And as with all dealings with the government involving money, you can always seek post-facto clarifications and explanations. Things are under control so as long as people at the EPFO handling your case know that you are aware.

Good luck. And remember, your money in the EPFO is amongst the best investments out there. Just take time out to follow the simple steps outlined above.

HC sends notice to top info officer

Hindustan Times: Jabalpur: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

The Madhya Pradesh high court on Monday served two weeks’ returnable notices on State Chief Information Commissioner Iqbal Ahmed during hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging appointment process of state chief information commissioner (CIC) and nine information commissioners (ICs).

Ahmed was impleaded as respondent into the PIL in a previous hearing. The PIL has been filed by former RDVV vice chancellor and ex-DGP Arun Gurtu and RTI activist Ajay Dubey. In May 14, 2012, HC issued notices on the respondents during hearing on the PIL.

The apex court has laid down certain criterion in the Namit Sharma Vs Union of India (UOI) and others case in September 2012 to be followed by the governments in the appointments of CIC and information commissioners, the petitioners’ counsel Siddartha Radhelal Gupta said.

The apex court directives say that the appointment of CICs and ICs at the central/ state level should be done in a transparent manner by issuing advertisement inviting applications from all concerned, Gupta said.

Furthermore, the apex court directed after receiving various applications, the panel should be prepared of the eligible persons, which should be of the judicial background, primarily former Chief Justice or judges of the high court.

Also the apex court directed the appointment shall be in consultation with the chief justice of the concerned high court, who must have a say in the candidate to be appointed as CIC of state information commission of any state.

Gupta said Ahmed does not fulfill any of the apex court’s criterions. He is still appointed as CIC. Thus his appointment is a sort of backdoor entry and a political one, the counsel added.

Now, scrutinise civic body's land use maps for mistakes

Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

Citizens who want to ensure that the city's new development plan (DP), expected to be in place from 2014, does not reflect the flaws and discrepancies in the existing land use (ELU) survey can now start on-ground scrutiny using the survey maps.

The Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) has obtained the rectified survey maps from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and has made it accessible on its website, though the BMC is yet to make the maps public, more than two weeks after it committed to permitting public scrutiny of the survey.

Reacting to a series of reports in HT about discrepancies in the ELU survey, civic chief Sitaram Kunte had said that the BMC would make the survey available by October 20, after correcting some obvious "technical" mistakes.

The ELU survey, conducted by a BMC-appointed consultant, has classified land use across the city and will form the basis for the new DP, which is a blueprint for the city's development for 20 years. As reported in HT, a study conducted by the UDRI has found at least 1,200 instances where the ELU survey does not match the 1991 DP and satellite imagery.

The UDRI has sent out a newsletter asking people to participate in the verification process.

Officials from the BMC's development plan department explained the delay. "We will put up the rectified maps of the ELU survey of each ward in the respective ward office. But we are waiting for these maps to be ready. Hopefully, we will be able to do so by the first week of November," said Rajiv Kuknur, chief engineer, DP department.

Another official said the BMC will come out with an email address so people can send their inputs.

Traffic cops let motorists violate rules only to book them later

The Times of India: Nagpur: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

Despite strict guidelines from the state police for regulating smooth vehicular movement by manning traffic junctions, the traffic cops in city are doing just the opposite.

Instead of manning traffic junctions, traffic cops stand at distant places and allow motorists to violate rules and later penalize them.

In fact, traffic cops are supposed to stand at any one of the four corners of a junction or inside the booth, admitted in-charge ACP (traffic) and information officer Avinash More while replying to a RTI query by activist Abhay Kolarkar.

Barring a few major crossings like Variety Square, Law College Square, RBI Square, Agrasen Chowk, Chhatrapati Square, hardly any traffic cop can be spotted at busy junctions.

The city's traffic police department has a strength of around 500 police personnel including one deputy commissioner of police, six senior police inspectors, PSIs, APSIs, head constables and constables. Despite this, traffic cops are deployed only at 85 junctions, while there are 86 busy crossings where no policemen are deputed, reveals the RTI reply.

Expressing concern, lawyer and traffic activist Tushar Mandlekar asked, "Who will police the police?" Traffic constables missing from important traffic junctions have deteriorated the vehicular movement at many places, he alleged.

A case in point is the Rani Jhansi Square. At this junction, two cops are deployed to regulate traffic. Instead, the men in white shirt and khakhi pants, choose to stand on North Ambazari Road resulting in chaos by three and six-seater autorickshaws.

In the RTI reply, More revealed another interesting fact which stated that the department has recovered Rs 10,93,50,850 fine by penalizing 8,24,052 motorists for violating traffic rules. Despite generating such a big amount, not a single penny has been spent for improving city's traffic.

Another thing which needs to be appreciated is that many a time these cops discharge their duties in extreme weather conditions, especially during summer.

A majority of two-wheeler riders cover their faces with scarves or dupattas. Though the reason cited is protecting the skin from Sun, the fact remains that it also hides the identity of the person.

Despite having provisions to book two-wheeler riders for riding without headgear, nothing has improved on city roads, Kolarkar alleged. Even the trend of covering faces with scarves by two-wheeler riders has increased manifold. The traffic officer admitted that covering faces with scarves is a punishable offence under section 140 of Bombay Police Act.

"If the objective is to save your skin from Sun, the helmet is a better option and besides I have seen boys driving with their faces covered in the evening," pointed out Kolarkar demanding that the traffic department relaunch the drive against drivers covering their faces with scarves.

M J Antony: Babus in black robes: The Supreme Court once again asserts judges' place in tribunals.

Business Standard: New Delhi: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

The angst over the imagined collapse of Right to Information (RTI) commissions following the recent Supreme Court judgment is still persisting. The government has filed a petition to review that judgment in the case, Namit Sharma vs Union of India. The fear is that a seat for judges in the RTI commissions will erode the independence of these panels.

On the contrary, the Supreme Court thinks that judges’ presence is necessary for the sake of independence of judiciary. In a judgment delivered earlier this month, the Supreme Court has asserted once again the judges’ role in tribunals, in the case, State of Gujarat vs Gujarat Revenue Tribunal Bar Association.

Despite a series of well-reasoned judgments over the years, it seems every quasi-judicial tribunal is destined to undergo teething troubles with the same symptoms. The nagging issue in every law setting up tribunals is the weight given to retired civil servants by draftsmen in the ministries, elbowing out judges. Since tribunalisation is the current trend – there are some 60 such panels – this has become a recurring issue.

Civil servants argue that these tribunals, set up under Chapter XIV-A of the Constitution, deal with technical subjects like electricity and telecommunications and require expert knowledge not found in the judicial fraternity. The answer given by judges several times over is that deciding disputes is an adjudicatory function for which they are more competent than bureaucrats. Judges claim a pedigree of deciding highly specialised disputes involving patents (the Supreme Court has been hearing the Novartis cancer medicine case for two months), intricate financial scams and even religious doctrines.

In the RTI judgment, the Supreme Court asserted that lack of judicial expertise in the commissions may render the decision-making process “impracticable, inflexible and in given cases, contrary to law”. It cited more than a dozen leading judgments to emphasise the need for judicial talent in adjudicatory bodies.

The latest judgment in the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal reiterates this viewpoint. The Government of Gujarat, in exercise of its power under the revenue tribunal rules, appointed the secretary to the state government as the president of the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal. The appointment was challenged in the high court by the bar association on the ground that being a “judicial office”, it could not be usurped by a person who had been an administrative officer all his life. The validity of the rules was also challenged.

The high court held that the tribunal was, in the strict sense, a “court”, and that the president, who presides over such body could, therefore, be only a “judicial officer”, a district judge or a person with judicial background for whose appointment concurrence of the high court is necessary under Article 234 of the Constitution. The state government, therefore, appealed to the Supreme Court without success.

The Supreme Court went into the history of the law. In 1939, the president of the revenue tribunal was selected from the judicial cadre. An amendment in 1941 continued with the emphasis on judicial experience. It was only in 1957 that the bureaucrats nudged out the judges the new rule provided that a secretary to the state government could chair the tribunal. No prize for guessing who introduced this quiet but substantial change without giving any reason for upsetting the hoary tradition.

Upholding the high court’s view, the Supreme Court reiterated its well-known stand. “Adjudicatory functions,” it said, “should be left to those with judicial background. It is indisputable that courts belong to the judicial hierarchy and constitute the country’s judiciary as distinct from the executive or legislative branches of the state. Judicial functions involve the decision of rights and liabilities of the parties. An enquiry and investigation into facts is a material part of judicial function. The legislature, in its wisdom has created tribunals and transferred the work which was regularly done by the civil courts to them, as it was found necessary to do so in order to provide efficacious remedy and also to reduce the burden on the civil courts and further, also to save the aggrieved person from bearing the burden of heavy court fees etc.”

Since almost every law setting up tribunals suffers constitutional birth pangs of this kind, and the law-makers look askance at the Supreme Court judgments, an amendment to Chapter XIV-A of the Constitution might be necessary to avoid future tug of wars. That is, if there is a functioning Parliament.

The story of the administrative tribunals, the Competition Commission of India and the National Tax Appellate Tribunal, are typical of the draftsmen creating unnecessary litigation up to the apex level. The government and administrators must spend their energy more on creating adequate infrastructure and working conditions for the tribunals (some of them have functioned from Ambassador cars and guest houses) instead of tweaking rules to wear a judicial hat after retirement.

CIC quizzes NTRO on camera-in-toilet complaints

The Times of India: New Delhi: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

CIC on Tuesday directed technical snooping agency National Technical Research Organisation to disclose information related to alleged filming of its women employees in toilets using hidden cameras.

Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said although the organization is exempted from making disclosures under the RTI Act, the case was of human rights violation and hence must be disclosed.

Gurgaon-based lawyer Naina Kapur had sought information from the NTRO if any of its women employees had filed a complaint regarding their alleged filming in organization's toilets using spy cameras and action taken on their allegations.

NTRO refused to part with the information saying it was an exempted organization under schedule two of the Section 24 of the RTI Act. The lawyer challenged the decision before the CIC arguing that the case was one of human rights violation.

Section 24 of the RTI Act exempts security organizations listed under second schedule from making any disclosures under the transparency law provided there are no allegations of corruption or human rights violation.

There was furore after news reports surfaced that women employees of NTRO were filmed inside office toilets using spy cams. Women staffers of NTRO had complained and an enquiry was also carried out but its results never came out.

"It is clear that it (information sought) falls squarely within the proviso to section 24. If, indeed, there was any such complaint from any women employees, it would constitute a clear case of violation of the women's human rights. Therefore, in our view, the CPIO is obliged to respond to the RTI queries," Mishra said in the order.

DoPT sends memo after slack response of depts on RTI study

Economic Times: New Delhi: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

Delayed response from several ministries on a study on RTI applications received by them has prompted the Department of Personnel and Training to send a reminder to all departments concerned to send details of their nodal officers for the purpose.

The analysis is aimed at documenting the success and constraints in implementation of RTI Act, identifying the areas which need more attention, addressing the gap areas and suggesting what more needs to be done to help achieve the objectives of the transparency law.

DoPT, which acts as a nodal department for the implementation of the RTI Act, had on September 4 requested the government departments to indicate their willingness to get an analysis of RTI applications received by them through an internship programme.

"Response in this regard is awaited from most of the ministries or departments," it said in its official memorandum.

DOPT has asked the ministries or departments desirous of getting the analysis done to allow interns sponsored by it to analyse a sample of RTI applications received in the last one year.

The expenditure of the internship programme by way of conveyance allowance of the interns would be borne by DoPT. The response in this regard alongwith the details of nodal officers to coordinate with DoPT for this programme should be intimated by November 5, it said.

It has also written to national law universities seeking volunteers to undertake the short-term internships.

The RTI Act, which was enacted in 2005, covers disclosure of information on nearly all matters of governance. The government had recently dropped its proposal to review fight against corruption through a self-evaluation study by independent experts in view of cold response from agencies concerned.

DoPT had in May this year invited expression of interest to undertake a self-evaluation study to assess anti-corruption measures as part of a mandatory obligation after ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption - an international legal instrument to deal with corruption.

The proposal was later dropped due to slack response.

HC summons Ballia CMO for hearing in RTI case

Indian Express: Allahabad: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Chief Medical Officer of Ballia district to be present in person at the next date of hearing in connection with a petition alleging delay in providing information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The court has fixed November 7 as the next date of hearing. A division bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Mushaffey Ahmed passed the order on a petition filed by Ved Prakash, a lawyer in Ballia district court.

Shailesh Kumar Tripathi, counsel for the petitioner, said: “Our main prayer is that the information sought by the petitioner should be made available to him within the statutory period. Also, we have prayed for direction from the high court to expeditiously dispose of our second appeal pending before the authority concerned.”

The court directed the CMO’s personal appearance following no response from him despite being given chances, Tripathi added.

Tripathi said on November 24 last year, Ved Prakash had filed an RTI application with the CMO seeking information on the charges, if any, which people were supposed to pay for getting birth and death certificates issued. However, the information did not reach him within the stipulated time.

Subsequently, the petitioner first filed the appeal with the District Magistrate, the appellate authority. Following no response, the petitioner approached the second appellate authority, Commissioner (Azamgarh division) for second appeal. The appeal is still pending.

मध्य प्रदेश के छह बाघ अभयारण्यों में 295 पद खाली: RTI

नवभारत टाइम्स: भोपाल: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

मध्य प्रदेश के छह बाघ अभयारण्यों में अनेक स्तरों पर 295 पद खाली पड़े हैं जिससे बाघों की सुरक्षा को लेकर चिंता पैदा हो गई है।

आरटीआई कार्यकर्ता अजय दुबे द्वारा दाखिल अर्जी के जवाब में मिली जानकारी के अनुसार फॉरेस्ट गार्ड के स्तर पर सबसे ज्यादा 222 पद खाली पड़े हैं। इनके अतिरिक्त 46 जगह फॉरेस्टर की, 25 वन्य रेंजर की और दो पद उप रेंजर के खाली पड़े हैं। आरटीआई जवाब के अनुसार कुल रिक्तियों में 87 पद सतपुड़ा बाघ अभयारण्य(होशंगाबाद) में, 62 कान्हा टाइगर रिजर्व में, 46 संजय बाघ अभयारण्य(सीधी) में, 44 बांधवगढ़ बाघ अभयारण्य में, 37 पन्ना बाघ अभयारण्य में और 19 पेंच रिजर्व(सिवनी) में खाली हैं।

राष्ट्रीय बाघ संरक्षण प्राधिकरण के इस साल अप्रैल तक के आधिकारिक आंकड़े के अनुसार मध्य प्रदेश में जनवरी से मार्च, 2012 के बीच करीब 16 बाघ मृत पाए गए। 2010 की बाघों की गणना के अनुसार देश में 1,706 बाघ हैं। इनमें से मध्य प्रदेश में करीब 257 बाघ हैं।

गौर करने वाली बात यह भी है कि प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह ने दो साल पहले मध्य प्रदेश सरकार को विशेष बाघ सुरक्षा बल बनाने के लिए कहा था लेकिन अभी तक इसका गठन नहीं किया गया है। प्रधानमंत्री ने अप्रैल 2010 में मध्य प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान को पत्र लिखकर बाघों की सुरक्षा के लिए कदम उठाने पर जोर दिया था।

दुबे ने कहा, 'यह दुर्भाज्ञपूर्ण है कि राज्य सरकार ने अनेक बाघ अभयारण्यों में खाली पड़े पद नहीं भरे हैं। सरकार ने बाघों को बचाने के लिए विशेष बाघ सुरक्षा बल भी नहीं बनाया है। हम इस संबंध में जल्दी मुख्यमंत्री से मुलाकात करेंगे।'

Top GM researcher falsified patent claim to grab national award

India Today: New Delhi: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

A top scientist engaged in research on genetically modified (GM) food crops has been found to have falsified claims about patents to grab a national award.

The scientist, Dr Kailash C. Bansal, was given the prestigious Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for "outstanding research" in transgenic crops for the year 2007-2008 on the basis of claims that he had"filed three patents for novel gene discovery", including one on transgenic brinjal .

In reality, no such patent application or patent existed when he was given the award on July 16, 2009.

Documents obtained under RTI and investigation made by Mail Today show that no patent application had been filed for brinjal discovery in October 2008 when Bansal was nominated for the award or in July 2009 when he was presented the award.

Bansal holds top positions in the research hierarchy of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

When he got the Kidwai award he was a professor at the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB) and presided over ICAR's transgenic research programme involving about 20 institutes all over the country and five-year budget exceeding Rs.135 core.

Top brass in ICAR have not only ignored the patent goof-up but has also rewarded Bansal by making him director of India's plant gene bank, officially known as National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources.

NRCPB's Institute Technology Management Committee (ITMC), which approves patent applications of scientists, was ignorant about Bansal's patent application till it found a mention in the award citation.

After the award was presented in July 2009, ITMC quizzed Bansal about the application on July 21, 2009, followed up by a reminder 10 days later. On August 5, 2009, Bansal replied saying he had applied for the patent on October 30, 2007, through a private law firm, Corporate Law Group. But the reference number given by him belongs to year 2009.

Despite the committee asking him to submit a copy of his application or receipt as a proof, Bansal did not comply. ITMC later wrote to ICAR. Instead of taking action against Bansal, the ICAR asked ITMC to'regularise'Bansal's application"in the Council's interest". When Mail Todayasked Bansal about the patent, he goofed up further. He gave the same reference number -1621/DEL/2009 -for his patent application, but a different date of filing. The date of application he gave to ITMC is October 30, 2007, whereas the date given in response to Mail Todayqueries is July 27, 2007. In reality, the application was filed in the first week of August 2009.

Mere continuance of Bansal in the ICAR system despite the patent taint is being used by both Bansal and his mentors in ICAR headquarters as a defence.

Bansal in an email response to Mail Todaysaid:"I continue to be part of the ICAR system on the same campus and faculty of NRCPB."His boss in ICAR, Dr Swapan K. Datta, also echoed the same line,"ICAR has taken official response on this matter. Dr Bansal is still working within ICAR". He did not reply when asked specifically what the official stand of the council was.

CASE FILE:

·    The citation of Kidwai award given to Dr K. C. Bansal mentioned a patent filed by him for transgenic brinjal

·    The institute records showed that no such application was filed when he got the award

·    When questioned about it, he filed the application after getting the award

·   ICAR authorities took no action against him but asked institute to 'regularise the application'

·    The dates of filing application given by Bansal to the institute and Mail Today do not match

·    Ignoring the patent goof up, Bansal was made head of India's gene repository

295 posts lying vacant in 6 tiger reserves of State : RTI report

Daily Pioneer: Bhopal: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

As many as 295 posts at various levels are lying vacant in six tiger reserves of the State, posing a security threat to the big cats there.

A highest of 222 vacancies are at the level of forest guards, 46 at foresters, 25 of forest rangers and two of deputy forest rangers, according to an information received in response to an RTI query filed by activist Ajay Dubey.

Of the total vacancies, 87 are in Satpura Tiger reserve, Hoshangabad, 62 in Kanha Tiger Reserve, Mandala, 46 in Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Sidhi, 44 in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Umaria, 37 in Panna Tiger Reserve, Panna and 19 in Pench Tiger Reserve, Seoni, it said.

According to an official data of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) updated till April this year, as many as 16 tigers were found dead between January and March, 2012 in Madhya Pradesh.

Tiger population in the country was estimated to be 1,706 as per the 2010 data. Madhya Pradesh has about 257 big cats in its various reserves.

Incidentally, Madhya Pradesh has not yet constituted a Special Tiger Protection Force despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s directive to the State Government in this regard two years ago.

The Prime Minister in April 2010 had written to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan emphasising on “urgent need” to ensure safety of tigers through a slew of measures including declaration of buffer areas at tiger reserves and setting up of a special force to protect the wild cats.

“It is unfortunate that the State Government has not filled vacant posts in various tiger reserves. It has also not formed a Special Tiger Protection Force to save the wild cats. We will soon meet the Chief Minister in this regard,” Dubey said.

Authorities in June had found a full grown tiger dead in the forest area of neighbouring Sehore district allegedly killed by poachers.

Centre to have relook at RTI

Daily Pioneer: New Delhi: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

The Centre has decided to review the implementation of the Right to Information Act and asked the States to report on the bottlenecks faced in processing applications in order to make the Act more accessible to people.

The timing of the decision has surprised many as it comes close on the heels of the announcement by the Prime Minister on the misuse of the Act in invading privacy of an individual. Lately, the Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal Ministry dealing with RTI law, even introduced rules restricting the word limit in RTI applications to 500.

However, the DoPT denied that the initiative intended to clip the power of citizens under RTI. “It is not to amend the Act. We are seeking views of States in terms of assessing accessibility to people and how to make its usage more useful. How we reach to large number of people in remote or tribal areas,” said DoPT Secretary PK Misra.

DoPT officials have shot letters to the States and Union Territory administrations to furnish details on the basis of applications received and bottlenecks observed by them. In addition, the Government has sought views from each State and UT on various matters related to implementation of the transparency law.

When asked the time-frame within which the States are expected to reply, Misra said, “No time limit has been given. We will try to take their views into consideration.”

Earlier this month PM Manmohan Singh had said that citizens’ right to know should be circumscribed if it encroaches on an individual’s privacy. “There is a fine balance required to be maintained between the right to information and the right to privacy, which stems out of the fundamental right to life and liberty. The citizens’ right to know should definitely be circumscribed if disclosure of information encroaches upon someone’s personal privacy. But where to draw the line is a complicated question,” the PM said.

The DoPT recently notified new RTI rules in which it put a limit of 500 words for filing an application under the Act and devised a new format for filing an appeal to the Central Information Commission (CIC) under the 2005 Act. It was also made mandatory for an appellant or his authorised representative to appear before the CIC either in person or through video-conference, as per the RTI rules notified on July 31.

The RTI Act, which was enacted in 2005, covers disclosure of information on almost all matters of governance. Although there are a set of exceptions prescribed under the Act, judicial activism coupled with a vibrant CIC has expanded the ambit of RTI extending to file noting, annual confidential reports and examination papers.

'Public information officers cannot question RTI applicant'

The Times of India: Hyderabad: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

Taking serious objection to the queries being raised by the public information officers (PIOs) when information is sought under the Right to Information ( RTI) Act, state information commissioner M Ratan has said that the PIOs have no business to ask questions. He said that providing information sought by the applicant was the job of the PIOs and putting questions to the applicant was not tolerable.

Ratan took strong objection to the pending applications in revenue department. Speaking at a meeting here on Monday, Ratan said, "Asking details of the applicant and purpose of the information goes against the spirit of the Act. The Act was designed to bring transparency in the governance and the PIOs should perform their duty as per its provisions," Ratan observed.

He said of the 15,000 applications pending with the state commission, more than 5,000 pertained to the revenue department alone. He said that nearly 1.7 lakh PIOs were appointed to furnish the information sought. He suggested that PIOs not to reject any application on flimsy grounds. The commission was taking steps to dispose the cases early in order to empower people with the information. He said that entire data sought and given by respective PIOs should be compiled in the computers as per section 4(1-b) of the act. He said although the act itself prescribed that 17 issues should be computerised, no one was following the rule.

Ratan said that it was unfortunate that many officers are not even aware of the details that need to be compiled in a tabular form of a table even seven years after the act came into vogue. He asked that all the welfare departments should upload their spending almost regularly and on a daily basis so that the stake holders would come to know about the expenditure. Joint collector N Yuvaraj and district revenue officer K Nagababu were present at the meeting.

Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle

The Times of India: Mumbai: Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.

Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.

The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.

"The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs," Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.

The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.

As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.

RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. "My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left," Roy said.

Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an "unsung hero". But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for "misconduct" and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.

Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. "A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery," Gandhi said. "Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up."

'Why no guidelines to protect children from sexual abuse ?'

Zee News: New Delhi: Monday, October 29, 2012.

The Delhi High Court has asked the central and Delhi governments to apprise it on the steps taken for framing guidelines to prevent sexual abuse of children in schools and educational institutions.

Issuing notice, a division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw sought a response by Dec 5 from the union ministry of women and child development and the Sheila Diskhit-led Delhi government on a plea filed by an NGO seeking guidelines for prevention of sexual abuse of children.

The HAQ Centre for Child Rights filed a public interest litigation (PIL) pointing out that the Juvenile Justice Act Rules make it mandatory for the authorities to frame the guidelines, but neither the central or Delhi governments had done so.

Seeking a direction to government to issue the guidelines, petition said: "Every person, school or such other educational institutions should abide by guidelines issued by central government and state government."

"However, the fact remains that till date, neither the central government nor the government of Delhi have issued any such guidelines for prevention of sexual abuse of children."

The plea further stated that the NGO, on several occasions, had advocated with both the governments about the need to frame and issue the guidelines.

Advocate Anant Asthana, who filed the petition, said: "Despite increasing incidents of sexual abuse of children in institutions being reported and despite there being an urgent need for such guidelines for schools, educational institutions, government have not issued these guidelines as mandated by law. Now with no guidelines, action is taken against the accused after the incident happened."

He said after formulation of uniform guidelines, all schools and educational institutions would have to follow the law.

"Now, there is no lawful mechanism to protect children from sexual abuse in schools and educational institutions, but after the formulation of these guidelines, monitoring of such cases will increase."

He said that the guidelines would make possible the early detection of child abuses cases.

"The guidelines would increase the monitoring of sexual abuse cases. We feel the incidents would also decreas if guidelines are framed. The schools and educational institutions would be made answerable if they fail to take any action on the issue," Asthana said.

The petition has been filed on the basis of an RTI reply provided by the Delhi government. NGO Pratidhi had filed a RTI query seeking information from the Delhi government on the status of the guidelines as per Rule 31 of the Delhi Juvenile Justice Rules, 2009, which made it mandatory to protect children from sexual abuse.

Although there is no data available on sexaul abuse in educational institutions, many such incidents have come to light in the national capital that have shocked the nation.

In September alone, two cases of sexual abuse came to light - both involving schoolbus drivers and minors.

In the first incident, a three-year-old boy was allegedly sodomised by his schoolbus driver and cleaner, while in second incident a 7-year-old girl accused her bus driver and cleaner of trying to rape her.

In another incident in July, a schoolteacher at Hauz Khas was arrested for raping a student. The teacher was also blackmailing the victim, threatening to make public her obscene photographs.

Such cases have also been reported from other cities and towns and many NGOs want the government to frame guidelines that could save students from sexual attacks by their own teachers or professors.

Fruits of equality still to reach 'mango people'

The Times of India: New Delhi: Monday, October 29, 2012.

This may have been the year of the 'mango people' , but there's still a long way to go. Civil society movements that emerged in this last year have taken a big step towards giving the common man a platform and a voice, but empowerment and raising awareness remain an unfinished agenda in India.

Awareness helps people know of the dangers they need to guard against and the opportunities available to them, and empowerment offers them means to access these opportunities. Yet in India, many stumbling blocks exist for marginalized groups - what Nobel laureate and development economist Amartya Sen has called the 'conversion handicap' , something that impedes people from achieving their capabilities . In India, this could be caste, where a dalit applicant for a private sector job is turned down on account of his surname, or gender, where a girl student who is harassed on her way to college drops out.

Crimes against women, especially sexual crimes, have shocked people across the country recently. Every 20 minutes a woman in India is raped, yet the conviction rate continues to fall and is now down to one out of every four cases, even as pendency in courts rises.

Guaranteed equal rights as men in the Constitution, women are treated unequally, right from the moment of conception. The 2011 Census shows that far from abating, the preference for male children as exhibited through sex-selective abortions of female babies has only grown, now touching even formerly egalitarian states and communities. Even while girls outperform boys in school examinations year after year, they are less likely to be enrolled, complete school and move on to higher education than their brothers. As adults, they often face domestic violence and do not have equal voice as their husbands in household and economic decisions.

Many of these are crimes against dalit women. India's scheduled castes continue to be subject to crimes based on their caste alone, and ostracisation and humiliation remain rampant, particularly in rural India. They also face difficulties in filing police complaints or getting a fair trial.

Through a combination of expanded political representation and strong grassroots activism , there is, however, growing empowerment of historically marginalised groups. Across the country, peaceful protests against the taking over of rural - especially tribal - lands for private commercial use or for big infrastructure projects have exploded. Earlier this month, 60,000 landless people under the banner of the Ekta Parishad captured the national imagination by marching from Gwalior towards Delhi seeking a better land policy and provision of land for the landless poor. A new Land Acquisition Act to replace the 1894 law currently in force continues to hang fire.

The fight for greater transparency in official dealings has been strengthened this year by movements against corruption and reporting and investigations on scams. One of the most powerful weapons in the common man's arsenal is the Right To Information Act, brought in by the UPA in 2005. However activists caution that the Act is being compromised. For one, there is the issue of backlogs: nearly one million RTI applications are filed annually, and 1,300 appeals are pending before the Central Information Commission alone. More recently , activists have raised an alarm over what they view as judicial interference in the RTI. The Supreme Court recently directed that appeals in the state and central information commissions be heard by two-member benches comprising information commissioners from judicial and expert backgrounds. Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has warned that such a move will exacerbate the backlog in information commissions and render them irrelevant for most common citizens.

Organizations working for social justice help marginalized groups become more aware of their rights and better lobby for their demands. Abolition of manual scavenging, social security, especially pension for unorganized workers, and greater people participation in policy-making are issues that have been in focus over the past year.

Information: Now more powerful than money ?

The Right To Information can help people get answers from an unresponsive bureaucracy, but what if it could do more than that? Could it clean up the system? A study by two Yale political scientists shows that this might just be true. Leonid V Peisakhin and Paul Pinto, two PhD candidates at Yale University's department of political science, conducted a field experiment in a Delhi slum among residents who were trying to apply for a ration card. Peisakhin and Pinto found that putting in an application for a ration card and then filing an RTI request checking on its status was almost as effective as paying a bribe! Most significantly, when poor people filed an RTI request, it erased the class disadvantage they otherwise faced, and their applications were cleared as fast as those of the middle class.

DNA Special: 10,646 Indians jailed abroad and forgotten

DNA: Mumbai: Monday, October 29, 2012.

Indian techie Bhavesh Parmar’s return has highlighted the plight of Indian prisoners in Pakistan. But there are also 10,646 other Indians who’ve shared a similar plight inprisons across the globe since 2000, an RTI query by Thane resident and RTI activist Om Prakash Sharma to the ministry of external affairs has revealed. It also reveals that 29 Indians were given the death penalty in different countries during the same period for offences like drug running, theft and murder.

“If you go by figures available with international watchdog organisations, it’s clear that India has the largest number of its citizens incarcerated abroad,” Sharma told DNA. “The media glare on cases like Sarabjit Singh ensures that the government attempts to at least show that it is taking action. But other prisoners and their families struggle on their own, with no support forthcoming.”

Pakistan, with 2,372 Indians in prison, is second to the UAE, where the numbers nearly double at 4,315. Bangladesh follows with 2,008 Indians jailed, while Kuwait with 1,161 comes fourth. This is followed by China, with 673 Indian inmates, and Oman, with 429.

Incidentally, the UAE has given as many as 21 Indians the death penalty since 2000, followed by Kuwait with six death penalties, while Timor and Iran have executed one Indian each.

When asked to comment, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin defended the ministry, “The MEA extends every possible help to all Indian nationals, irrespective of where they are. There is no prioritisation on the basis of which country they're incarcerated in.”

Sharma points out instances of how other countries go out of their way to help their nationals caught in a similar predicament.

“Look at the recent case of Italian marines who're facing trial in India over murder charges after they shot dead two fishermen off the coast of Kerala in February this year. Their government has gone out on a limb to help them and is even using non-conventional tactics – like encouraging sporting events sponsored by Italian brands – to create sympathy for the marines.”

He lamented: “Indian authorities love to preen at the high table, calling the country an equal among superpowers. But the real acid test is how much they value they lives of their citizens. Even human rights activists, who hog the limelight when it comes to cases like Sarabjit, never speak about imprisonment of other Indians or the death penalties handed out.”

Don't want to disturb him: Parmar's mother

A day after 32-year-old software engineer Bhavesh Parmar reached his Vile Parle home after spending seven years in a Pakistani prison, his family is being very cautious. They have decided not to talk to him or let him talk to anyone else either, his mother Hansaben told DNA. She also said that it was too early to consult a psychiatrist and that they were going to give Bhavesh time to adjust to life back at home. 10,646: Indians jailed abroad since 2000.

No ease of access for disabled to post offices

The Times of India: New Delhi: Monday, October 29, 2012.

Gulmohar Park's post office exists in the basement of DDA market, down a flight of stairs in a structure with no ramps or lift. That, however, hasn't deterred the south division of the India Post from declaring it "barrier-free" in its reply to an RTI enquiry filed by Dr Satyendra Singh, professor of physiology at University College of Medical Sciences and doctor at GTB Hospital.

Singh, himself disabled, filed a query under RTI Act in July requesting information from the postal department on the levels of accessibility at Delhi post offices. The reply is worrying as many first-floor post offices have no lifts and many of those declared "barrier-free" have stairs leading to them.

South division claims 65 of their 67 post offices (including Gulmohar Park's), are "barrier-free". The ones at Chittaranjan Park and Kailash Colony, it admits, are on the first floor "without any facility of lift". South division also claims that "ramps have been constructed for free movement of wheelchairs" and "height of all the counters has been lowered for easy access".

West division, too, claims "all the post offices of this division are easily accessible and barrier-free". "The two post offices in Rajouri Garden are both on the ground floor. The one in Janta Market has a very high pavement in front of it and the one in the main market is on a narrow and potholed bylane frequently flooded by sewage water and is slippery. A visually-impaired person can't reach that one," says Singh. The postal department didn't reply to his queries immediately but responded only after a first appeal was filed.

Singh travels 10 kilometers to Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, to send a speed post as the post offices closer to home all are inaccessible. "We only have impairments, it's the society which makes us disabled," he says.

North division runs 81 post offices of which 14 are above ground-floor or occupy multiple-floors. As per the division's own admission, "there is no provision of lifts in any post office building". However, the division had written to the executive engineer, postal civil division, for providing assistance as per the Disability Act, in seven post offices (including Ashok Vihar, Civil Lines, Malka Ganj and Rohini Sector 7) first in January 2009 and again in July and September, 2010, "but the needful has not been done yet". Southwest division runs 60 post offices, mostly from rented buildings, and 46 of them don't have ramps for wheelchairs. None of the post offices in the southwest division are on the first floor.

In central division, four post offices are operating from first-floors, "without having the lift" or any "separate arrangement for the people with disability". East division, too, states that "no post office under this division is with the facility of lift" and "no facilities were provided" for people with disability on POs above ground-floor. They say that barring seven post offices (at Krishna Nagar, Azad Nagar, Old Seemapuri, Mayur Vihar, Shahdaramandi, Gandhi Nagar Bazar and GTB Hospital), the rest of their 62 offices are "accessible to all persons with disabilities". Apparently, the stairs (without even handrails) at the PO in Jhilmil Industrial Area are not a barrier.

In the first question, Singh had sought "accessibility status" and explained what he meant by adding parenthetically, "whether accessible/barrier-free or not to persons with disabilities". In reply to this query, the office of the director, General Post Office, informs, "The GPO is centrally located and it is, therefore, accessible for all".

Only 4.6 % of officers spending less than 4.6% of their time on RTI: Shailesh Gandhi

The Times of India: Lucknow: Monday, October 29, 2012.

Former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi does not agree with the recent Supreme Court judgment making it necessary for Chief Information Commissioners to have a judicial background and to conduct all hearings in benches consisting of two Commissioners one of whom will have to be a person from judicial background.

Addressing a meeting of RTI activists organized by Campaign for Right to Information, UP, and Lok Soochnadhikar Manch, Gandhi put up a spirited argument why a person of judicial background was not necessary for the Information Commission. "The task merely involved either taking a decision of either allowing information to be given or not. Some judicial thinking may be required to consider the cases of exemption from the Act. But such cases are rare. In the 20,000 cases that he disposed of, only two required some legal interpretation.

Gandhi questioned when IAS officers, without any legal background can perform quasi-judicial role, why can't the Information Commissioners? He said that it was wrong for the Supreme Court to say that 75% of officers were now spending 75% of their time in providing information. According to his calculations 4.6 % of officers were spending less than 4.6% of their time on RTI. He said that the same Supreme Court was in favour of the right to information before the Act was made but the recent judgment will weaken the law.

Gandhi said that in his view some members of judiciary does not want RTI to apply on judiciary. He gave an example of a Sureme Court Judge who was found under RTI to have travelled to Australia via Chicago. "It is probably such things which a few judges are finding 'vexatious' and which the prime minister thinks is 'private information'," he said.

Justice (retired) Pradeep Kant of the High Court advised caution. He said whereas he was definitely not in favour of anything which would weaken the Act or would protect the wrongdoers he would like decisions to be taken only within the framework of law.

Former legal advisor to governor, Chandra Bhushan Pandey said only people with an activist bent of mind should be appointed Information Commissioners and further commented that people were being made Information Commissioners not on the basis of their merit but because of political connections.

Former State Information Commissioner Gyanendra Sharma and activist Naveen Tewari also spoke at the meeting.

Make government kiosks hubs for RTI: Large segments of the population have no access to information and often cannot exercise their rights.

Livemint: New Delhi: Monday, October 29, 2012.

The only way RTI would become a non-issue is by ensuring government
 information is already in the public domain and essentially on the Internet

There is only one way India can become a leading country in the 21st century global economy—by ensuring unhindered deployment of its right to information (RTI) law and universally enabling it with the Internet.

On 12 October, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a critical remark in this regard. “There are concerns about frivolous and vexatious use of the (RTI) Act in demanding information, the disclosure of which cannot possibly serve any public purpose,” he said. “Such queries, besides serving little productive social purpose, are also a drain on the resources of the public authorities, diverting precious man-hours that could be put to better use.” It is ironical that Singh is so concerned when only 1 million RTI queries were recorded last year from the huge 1.2 billion people living in the country. Clearly, large segments of the population have practically no access to information, the main reason why they often cannot exercise their rights.

I would like to discuss how our country suffers because of this lack of enabling access to information and how the sheer number of such population is so mindboggling that the Prime Minister should first look at them and be concerned till the RTI reaches each one of them.

The RTI law requires all government departments to proactively put their information in the public domain, which includes office walls, panchayat notice boards, school building walls, block office walls and notice boards, and media vehicles such as radio, television, newspapers, short messaging services, interactive voice response, toll free numbers and the Internet. Among these, the Internet is the only one that can be treated as truly permanent, unlimited space for public access. All other media is limited, paid, temporary and perishable.

Has the Internet reached the masses? According to industry lobby group Internet and Mobile Association of India and market researcher IMRB, out of 833 million people living in rural areas, only 38 million use the Internet. Ironically, out of the 900 million mobile phone subscribers, only 323 million are from rural India and only 3.6 million of them use their devices to access the Internet, which is only 12% of the total Internet users.

The government’s information kiosks, known as common service centres (CSCs), and cyber cafes are the most used access points for Internet usage in villages, so much so that almost 60% of all the Internet users in rural India use CSCs to access the Web by travelling on an average 6-10km. There are some 95,000 Internet-enabled CSCs mostly located in rural areas that promise to provide government-to-citizen and business-to-citizen services. While a major percentage of them are struggling for sustainability, 90% of the country is suffering from an information gap and is yet to take advantage of the Internet.

There could be many ways to save RTI from being gagged and make it a national phenomenon. One is to make all the CSCs double up as RTI kiosks, where citizens seek information and request information through the RTI Act. Secondly, government should set a deadline and ensure each and every official entity make their information public through their ministry, department and functionaries, and this line of action should go down till the level of the village councils.

The only way RTI would become a non-issue is by ensuring government information is already in the public domain and essentially on the Internet—and proactively. Till such time, it would be ideal for the nation’s leaders to always talk in favour of RTI rather than against it. Also, curbing RTI is directly proportional to making the country poor in information, ensuring that India remains a poor country unfit for the 21st century that relies so much on the information economy.

In addition, the government can also ensure an RTI-friendly, Internet-enabled 250,000 public access points by complementing the installation of high-speed fibre optic broadband lines reaching all village councils. This confluence of Internet, RTI and village councils will only strengthen our democracy.