Wednesday, April 23, 2014

RTI query on government nominated MLCs stonewalled

Times of India: Nagpur: Wednesday, April 23, 2014.
One of the UPA government's boasts on 'clean' governance relates to the Right To Information Act that it brought about in 2005. Yet, it is found that getting information from the government remains a cumbersome process. Often such an effort meets dead-end. A city-based social activist Sampat Ramteke discovered this when he sought information on criteria for getting nomination as member of the state legislative council from governor's quota.
Under Article 171 section 5, the governor has the powers to nominate 12 persons as members of the Maharashtra legislative council. The term of 12 such members expired on March 12 and the governor is expected to nominate a new batch soon after Lok Sabha election process ends on May 16. As per the stipulated norms, the nominee selected by him should be an eminent person from the field of literature, arts, social service, sciences or the cooperative movement.
The 12 governor nominees whose term has ended are Subhash Chavan, Mohan Joshi, Alka Desai, Suresh Navle, Charansingh Sapra and M M Sheikh (all from Congress). The six from NCP are Fauzia Khan, Vidya Chavan, Ram Pandagale, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, Ramesh Shendge and Sumant Gaikwad.
Ramteke is president of Sickle Society of India. He has strived for years to bring to the national conscience problems of sickle cell anaemia, a blood disease typical to a section of the society mainly in Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh belt. In his RTI application sent on March 27, he had specifically sought details of educational and other qualification of the 12 retiring members and the area of their work. He had also sought information on documents that needed to be selected for getting the governor's nomination and details of the nomination process.
Much to Ramteke's chagrin, his application was passed on by the governor's office to the chief minister's secretariat on April 1 with a plea that CM secretariat is the right quarter to get the information sought. But a week later, the CM secretariat said it could not help in the matter and passed on the application to the legislative secretariat. "Time is running out for the next batch selection by the governor. I have little hope of getting the specific information," Ramteke rued. "I have observed that the ruling parties while recommending the names to the governor do not follow the set norms. Hence the selection process is unconstitutional. It is the political leaders or those that the ruling party wants to favour who get the nomination," Ramteke alleged.
The dubious dozen
The 12 governor nominees whose term in state legislative council ended on March 12 are Subhash Chavan, Mohan Joshi, Alka Desai, Suresh Navle, Charansingh Sapra and M M Sheikh (all from Congress). Fauzia Khan, Vidya Chavan, Ram Pandagale, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, Ramesh Shendge and Sumant Gaikwad
Typically, all of them are politically connected and would not fit into class of litterateurs, artists or scientists
Will the next batch the governor nominates in May be again politically motivated, asks RTI applicant Sampat Ramteke