Daily Pioneer: Mumbai: Wednesday, June 13, 2012.
Crusading RTI activists on Tuesday charged that Maharashtra’s new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Ratnakar Gaikwad had refused to accept responsibility for alleged irregularities committed by him as the MMRDA Commissioner and Stare Chief Secretary the two posts that he had held prior to his retirement on May 31.
In their effort to seek explanation from the new State CIC for many RTI documents about Adarsh and other scams that happened during his tenure as Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA and State chief Secretary, six RTI activists - including GR Vora, Krishnaraj Rao and Anil Galgali - called on Gaikwad on Monday.
“However, Gaikwad did not look at any document and dwelt on generalities such as `I am a bona fide person, and not even my worst enemies will say that I have ever acted in a mala fide manner in any matter. You can ask any ten honest officers of your choice their opinion about me, they will all vouch for my honesty. Every file at MMRDA was not placed on my table. Many other IAS officers were responsible,” Rao said, dwelling upon the deliberations at Monday’s meeting.
Similarly on the activists’ charge that he, in his capacity as the State Chief Secretary, had deliberately kept the post of State CIC vacant for 10 months so that he could step into the position himself after his retirement from the state government, did not elicit satisfactory explanation from Gaikwad.
According to Rao, Gaikwad also denied that he had acted against public interest by issuing Occupation Certificate (OC) to Adarsh building, ignoring objections raised by stern Naval Commanding-in-Chief about national security issues.
“Gaikwad vehemently held onto his position that he was not solely responsible for the security implications of the Adarsh building… the Navy’s letter was addressed to the Stare government and not directly to him. He said that had the Navy asked him directly not to issue the OC to Adarsh building, he would not have done so,” Rao said.
Rao said that on Adarsh and several other issues raised by the RTI activists along with the incriminating RTI documents, RTI refused to accept any responsibility for his wrong doing
“We left scratching our heads and wondering: if the head of a public authority does not take responsibility for the blatant wrongdoings and corruption that happen there during his tenure, who is to be held responsible? If the buck does not stop at the top person in an organization, where does it stop?,” Rao stated.
Apart from Rao, Vora and Galgali, the other RTI activists had gone in delegation to the new State CIC were Sulaiman Bhimani, Moahmmad Afzal and Kamlakar Shenoy.
The six activists are among 35 RTI activists across Maharashtra rooting for the removal of Gaikwad from his Constitutional post as the State CIC. Monday’s meeting was a follow-up of a joint petition that 35 RTI activists had submitted to Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranayanan on June 8 to re-consider Gaikwad’s appointment to the coveted office as the State CIC in view of his alleged role in the Adarsh scam and other controversies. The Governor had administered oath of office to Gaikwad as the State CIC on the same day.
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