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