Times of India: Kolkata: Tuesday, May 28, 2013.
In a major
embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee government, the West Bengal Information
Commission (WBIC) has admitted to handing over wrong information that was meant
for finance minister Amit Mitra's budget speech in the assembly this year.
The lapse is
all the more serious because the commission answers your RTI queries as well.
The WBIC has
written to the state government, conceding that it provided "wrong
figures" relating to cases pending with it.
Officials at
Writers' Buildings said that the commission had reported only 3,000 cases were
awaiting hearing when the actual figure had crossed 10,000.
The
commission, which failed to publish annual reports for three consecutive years,
managed to put together the data on January 11, 2013, so that it could be used
for the budget speech. "During the process of verification it has come to
the commission's attention that wrong figures have been communicated on
different occasion ... regarding yearly receipts and disposals of cases,"
says the letter (no: 596-WBIC/1B-01/08) on "position of pending appeals
and complaints received by WBIC since inception".
The WBIC was
set up in 2006 under the personnel & administrative reforms (P&AR),
which is headed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The "wrong" data
was sent to the joint secretary of the P&AR department.
Speaker Biman
Banerjee was aghast when told about the letter. "We'll look into the
matter and take necessary action," he said. Former Speaker Hasim Abdul
Halim was stunned. "This is ridiculous. I can't believe that the state
information commission, which is ruled by the RTI Act, 2005, has misled the
assembly. This is not only a serious beach of privilege of the House, but a
major let-down for the common man who hasn't many avenues to turn to for
information related to public service," Halim said.
Halim, who
had the world's longest serving tenure as Speaker (29 years), said a breach of
privilege could be initiated against the offender if it is found that the wrong
information ended up in the assembly.
The
punishment could range from condemnation to a fine or even imprisonment. The
process, of course, could be long-drawn with the matter being referred to the
privilege committee, followed by inquiry and report.
The letter
says: "A recent report indicating position of receipts and disposal of
complaints for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 was sent to the joint secretary of
your (P&AR) department as material for the budget speech of the finance
minister. As no authenticated record of year-wise receipts and disposal of
cases were available, the commission felt it necessary to conduct a thorough
physical verification to determine the correct figures."
"Can't
say what data was submitted to Writers'," state chief information
commissioner Sujit Sarkar told TOI. "I am aware that around 10,000 cases
are pending with the commission. This figure may not be absolutely correct. The
annual report submitted before the assembly was compiled on the basis of
whatever records were available with us then. It will be rectified now that an
intense scanning is on. This is part of a special drive we have undertaken. We
have found that the number of pending cases is more than whatever has been
reported."
Kumari Anita,
law officer, WBIC, explained: "The information provided to the assembly
for 2010, 2011 and 2012 was based on rough calculation since the last time a
proper, annual report was filed was in 2009. We are scrutinizing further and
everything will be up on the website." When? The law officer's reply:
"Can't tell."
"All
this sounds so strange. Considering the gravity of the matter, it should be
dealt with immediately," said Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta
Mishra.
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