Daily Bhaskar:Wednesday, January 04, 2012.
Ahmedabad: Even as Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi continues his 'Sadbhavana Mission' fasts, the officials who have been organising them have not always been attentive to the rules that apply to such programmes.
In reply to an RTI query, the collector of Porbandar, Girish Shah, has admitted that he, as the organiser of the CM's fast, had not taken prior permission of the police department for the event.
An RTI activist, Bhanubhai Odedara, has sent an application to the Porbandar police chief demanding that a complaint be filed against the chief minister as prior permission was not taken for his fast.
Earlier, in his reply to Odedara's RTI query, the collector had accepted that his office had not sought any permission from any government office for the chief minister's programme.
Odedara had subsequently sent an application to the Porbandar superintendent of police (SP) demanding that a police complaint be filed against the chief minister, minister Vajubhai Vala and others for holding the function without proper permission.
However, Porbandar SP Dipan Bhadran denied having received any such application and said that permission for the programme had been granted. "Anything can be alleged. We will need to investigate it," he said.
Meanwhile, the collector also said that it was a state-sponsored programme and that the collector's office had paid Rs 31,000 as electricity bill.
Bhanubhai said he had also asked about the number of ST buses that had been used for the programme. The RTI office said it had forwarded this part of his query to the mamlatdars and taluka development officers who were allegedly managing the buses used for the function.
Modi had observed a daylong fast at Porbandar on November 20, 2011. His programme was visited by thousands of people.