Melvyn Thomas, Oct 26, 2010
SURAT: After the visually-challenged RTI activist Ratna Ala, another RTI crusader from Valsad, Ketan Shah has lodged a complaint stating that he has been threatened for his activism by the chief officer of Valsad nagarpalika and senior officers in the district administration.
For Shah, major shock came after the nagarpalika passed a resolution — a copy is with TOI — in the general body meeting on October 19 to blacklist him and strictly ordering the entire staff in the municipality not to entertain the applications filed by him seeking information and other miscellaneous work.
Shah, 40, a resident of Mota Bazaar at Bunder Road in Valsad town, has been using RTI as a tool to play watchdog in the works done by the nagarpalika for the past five years. In many cases, his RTI pleas stirred officers in the nagarpalika and the district collectorate into action.
In 2009, Shah, who is also a lawyer by profession, was successful in getting two engineers with the nagarpalika suspended for their alleged involvement in corruption in laying of the drainage network worth Rs1.70 crore under the National Slum Development Programme ( NSDP) scheme of the central government.
Interestingly, the suspended engineers were immediately transferred to other place and they were called back on duty after eight days. When Shah challenged the decision taken by the nagarpalika to reinstate the corrupt engineers, he received an official letter stating that the three shops leased to him in 1982 by the district administration have been cancelled and that he was ordered to vacate the shops at the earliest as the nagarpalika has to repair the drainage manhole chamber passing from beneath their shops.
Now, the situation is such that the nagarpalika has boycotted Ketan Shah and his family. Few days ago, Shah gave an application to the nagarpalika to clean up his overflowing drainage line. But, the municipality officers gave a report that his drainage line was okay and there is no need to clean it up. However, Shah wrote a letter to the minister of state for urban development urging him to ask the nagarpalika officers to clean up his overflowing drainage.
He has told in his complaint to the Range IG that the chief officer of Valsad nagarpalika Jigar Patel has been using pressure tactics in one or the other way to withdraw the RTI applications against the nagarpalika. He gave many applications in the local police station and to the district superintendent of police (DSP) alleging mental harassment meted out to him by the nagarpalika officers, but they (police) are yet to take any action.
"I know death is stalking me every now and then. My only fault is that I have used the RTI tool effectively in exposing the corrupt practices going on in the nagarpalika. I will meet the same fate as RTI activist Amit Jethava," said Shah. "Two days ago, I left my house for some work at night. A speeding car zoomed passed from a very close distance. For a while, I thought it is all over," added Shah.
About the fear of death, Shah said, "The entire administration is against me. I do not care about my death. I will continue to fight to expose the corruption going on in the nagarpalika till my last breath."
Shah's wife, Sarita who is a mother of three kids, said, "They have started harassing our close relatives residing in Valsad as well. They (relatives) are asking us to stop doing RTI against the nagarpalika. But I have asked my husband to continue his work as the RTI crusader and do not worry about me and my children."
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