Moneylife: Pune: Saturday, April 27, 2013.
Acting on a
complaint, the CIC directed the MCD to display information on sign-boards about
funds allotted to councillors and update the details of expenditure every six
months. This is the 79th in a series of important judgements given by former
Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi that can be used or quoted in
an RTI application
The Central
Information Commission (CIC), while allowing a complaint, directed the chief
engineer of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to ensure that the
directions given by the Commission (to have sign-boards in the Hindi language
displayed prominently) are complied with and send a compliance report.
While giving
this judgement on 13 April 2012, Shailesh Gandhi, the then Central Information
Commissioner said, “...the Commission had given an order which was to be
implemented over a year back. It is unfortunate that subsequently citizens went
about monitoring this simple activity and found that the order had not been
complied with properly. All government officers must feel ashamed if they are
found wanting in simple activity of this nature.”
New Delhi
resident Anjali Bhardwaj, along with 317 other citizens, filed a complaint to
the Commission under Section 18 of the RTI Act.
The complaint
stated that details of funds spent by the respective councillors of MCD should
be available suo moto for the knowledge of citizens of the respective areas or
wards.
Ms Bhardwaj
stated that the 272 councillors of the MCD were allocated certain amount of
funds each year, Rs2 crore in 2008-09, Rs50 lakh in 2009-10 and that Section 4
of the Right to Information (RTI) Act envisages that such information should be
available in the public domain. She acknowledged that this information was
available in English on the website of the GNCTD, however it cannot be accepted
that the common man or a person of limited means has the resources or the
knowledge of operating or availing such information through the website.
Furthermore,
from 2007 till 2010 the department spent about Rs875 crore through the
Councillor Funds, Ms Bhardwaj said.
The Right to
Information is a fundamental right of the citizens, which has been codified by
the RTI Act, No22 of 2005. The Act envisions that all citizens shall receive
information primarily by suo moto disclosures by various public authorities as
prescribed by Section 4 of the Act. It further envisages that citizens would be
required to specifically ask for information under Section 6 only in a few
cases. However, when public authorities do not fulfil their obligations under
Section 4, citizens have no way but to seek information under Section 6, which
in turn becomes a cost for the citizens as well as the government. Obligations
under the Section were to be fulfilled by 12 October 2005 and five years have
already lapsed since then, Mr Gandhi, the then CIC, noted.
While
allowing the complaint on 10 February 2011, the Commission directed the
commissioner of MCD to install a sign-board of appropriate dimension,
mentioning details of expenditure of the current as well as previous year of
the councillor funds for that particular ward. The CIC also directed the MCD
commissioner to send a compliance report by 25 March 2011.
On 27 May
2011, the CIC received a compliance report from the then chief engineer (QC) of
MCD. In the meantime, the Commission also received several letters from
citizens pointing out that the CIC's order was not complied by the MCD.
The
Commission then initiated an inquiry in the matter. After conducting an
inspection on 20 March 2012 and 23 March 2012, of various zones of the MCD, the
CIC found that the concerned officers have failed to comply with its order.
Mr Gandhi,
the then CIC, then issued a show-cause notice to assistant commissioners of all
concerned zones and the chief engineer (QC). The Commission also asked them to
appear before it along with the concerned officers, who were responsible for
the non-compliance of its order.
During the
hearing on 13 April 2012, several officers from the MCD admitted that there
have been some shortfalls in putting up the boards. Mr Gandhi then pointed out
that its order should have been implemented a year ago. The then chief engineer
Ram Prakash submitted a letter to the CIC assuring that the order had been
complied with. And yet it was found that the CIC order was not implemented in
many wards.
Mr Gandhi
while appreciating the efforts by officers like VP Dahiya, and Roshan Lal,
noted that the boards in Ward no201, 203 and 204 at Central Zone, ward nos.
174, 176 and 171 South Zone, Ward no189 Chirag Delhi, ward no171 Vasant Kunj
and ward no172 Kishan Garh were found to have been done well and meeting the
promise made to citizens.
All officers
present during the hearing then assured the Commission that all wards will have
boards in the Hindi language displayed prominently where citizens can see them
and that citizens will have no cause for complain on these.
They also
committed to the Commission that the boards will be there in all 272 wards of
Delhi before 1 May 2012. They have also agreed that in case they do not install
the boards it would be reasonable for the Commission to impose penalties on the
defaulting officers.
Mr Gandhi,
then directed the chief engineer Ramesh Chand to ensure that the directions as
given above are complied with before 1 May 2012 and send a compliance report to
the Commission before 10 May 2012.
.JPG)
.JPG)
