Sukhdeep Kaur Posted online: Mon Dec 13 2010,
Chandigarh : If novelty in use of Right to Information Act (RTI) carried any awards, the Punjab government could have won hands down. What was meant to be a tool for the common man to seek information is, apparently, being used by the Punjab government to take on its estranged minister, Manpreet Singh Badal. While it takes a minimum of two to four weeks for government departments to answer an RTI query, the Punjab Department of Transport Commissioner has provided a detailed account on fuel expenses of the rebel Badal with lightning speed barely 24 hours.
Dinesh Kumar, a Chandigarh resident, had on November 29, 2010, sought information on Manpreet’s travel expenses from 1998, when he was first elected MLA, to October 2010. The Transport Commissioner’s office chronicled the kilometres logged from 1998 by the four vehicles a Tata Sumo, a Toyota Qualis, a Toyota Camry and a Gypsy in each of these years with corresponding fuel expenses, the very next day, November 30, 2010.
But if the department’s quick response surprises you, there’s more. Details of native guards at his residence at Chandigarh, Badal village, escort vehicle and personal security officers (PSOs) on duty in 2007 and 2010 the number went up from 20 in 2007 to 24 in 2010 were not even sought from the police department through an RTI query.
Notably, even the RTI Act (Section 7) exempts the state from giving any citizen information that could endanger the life or physical safety of any person or pertains to assistance given in confidence for security purposes.
But Manpreet says its not a question of endangering his security. “I don’t keep any security. Can they produce any photograph of me travelling with security or with gunmen around me. Whatever number of securitymen is being attributed to me do not report to me. I had written to them even to remove security at my official residence at Chandigarh but was told it is to safeguard government property. These so-called RTIs are dirty tricks to discredit me. The issues on which I parted ways with them are much bigger than this. As for my father, he was provided security as a former MP and blood relation of the Chief Minister,” he said.
On fuel expenses, he said he has never sought reimbursement for any of his journeys to New Delhi or any other part of the country as a minister. “I never got my hotel or travel bills reimbursed. As for kinnows, I scripted a success story in the citrus fruit as a progressive farmer. And availing of subsidies for packing and inland haulage was needed to market kinnows to other states and Bangladesh a viable option,” he said.
Interestingly, the Punjab government’s rapid response has surprised RTI activists of the state. “It is rare in Punjab that we get information within the mandatory 30 days. We have to move the Punjab Information Commission and on a few occasions even the Punjab and Haryana High Court to get information. The government’s responding to the RTI within a day is most surprising to say the least,” said Punjab RTI Activists’ Federation secretary Anil Vashisht.
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