Times of India: New Delhi: Monday,
September 26, 2016.
At a time
when the Delhi government is proposing a hike in the annual MLA Local Area
Development Scheme (MLALADS) funds from the current Rs 4 crore to Rs 14 crore
for speeding up development work, it has come under scrutiny for lack of
transparency.
Voluntary
organisation Satark Nagrik Sangathan's Anjali Bhardwaj filed a complaint with
the Central Information Commission on September 14 stating that "the Delhi
government is violating Section 4 of the RTI Act and the specific order of the
CIC dated February 10, 2011, to proactively disclose details of utilisation of
the MLALAD scheme through a board in each constituency and through the
internet."
It has sought
an inquiry into the violations and wants action against officials responsible
for obstructing information. AAP rode to power on the plank of bringing
transparency in governance. Lack of adherence to CIC guidelines has been
brought out through ground audits and data analysis submitted by the
complainant to CIC.
RTI responses
from the state have been submitted to illustrate how things have gone wrong.
"On June 11, 2015, an RTI application was filed with the UD department.
Information was sought on each board displaying details of MLALADS and the
url/web address of the website. In reply to the RTI application, instead of
providing the location and addresses of the boards, the department forwarded
the application to all the executing agencies, including, PWD, SDMC, EDMC,
NDMC, BSES, DDA, Delhi Cantonment Board, DJB, NDPL, DUSIB etc. Despite
receiving about 250 pages from these various agencies/departments, the relevant
information sought about the boards displaying details of MLALADS was not provided,"
says the complaint.
The UD
department had issued directions to 16 executing agencies on January 27, 2015,
stating that, "now the information pertaining to 2011-12 onwards is to be
installed on a board in each constituency. The UD department, which is the
nodal department for works under MLALADS, is not equipped for handling such
issues. Hence, it has been decided that each executing department will mention
the information regarding work executed under MLALADS on a board having maximum
public view in each constituency. The space for installation of the board will
be decided by the municipal corporation..." The complainant has noted that
these directions clearly indicate that the boards have not been updated since
2011-12.
"Further,
the UD department's attempt at abdicating its responsibility in terms of
collecting details of fund utilisation and displaying them on boards by
directing each agency to put up separate boards is without jurisdiction,"
it is emphasized. The CIC order had clarified that all the information of how a
MLA utilised the MLALAD funds was to be updated on "a signboard".
As far as
displaying information on a website in conformity with the CIC order is
concerned, in reply to the RTI application, the UD department stated that the
details of utilization of MLALADS are available at www.ud.delhigovt.nic.in. The
complaint then goes on to show how multiple links lead to a web of information
that is of little help to understand the status of fund utilization.
The
complainant refers to an order dated September 24, 2015, by the special
secretary (UD) stating that 'MLA Local Area Development Fund online processing
and monitoring' is hosted at mlalad.delhi.gov.in. As per the order, the
credentials for the application have been provided to MLAs and that they are
required to update information.
An analysis
of the information on this website on September 12 this year by a Satark Nagrik
Sangathan team revealed that for more than 75% of the constituencies, no
details of projects had been provided and the web pages were blank.
"Whether this implies that the MLA has not recommended any works or has
recommended works but details have not been uploaded is unclear. Only for 15
MLAs is any kind of information available on the website," it has been
pointed out.
"Even
for constituencies where projects are displayed, more than 70% do not provide
the exact location of the project," it is stated in the complaint.
Since the
formation of District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), the MLALAD scheme is
being executed through it. Each of the 11 districts of Delhi has its own
website, which has a link to DUDA. The complainant points out that on these
links, letters detailing release of funds from MLALADS by the MLAs of that
district were available. "As the information is disclosed in the form of
individual letters for release of funds, it is not possible to view all the
details of utilization of MLALADS for a constituency at one go," says the
complaint.
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