Economic Times: Mumbai: Tuesday, 06 May 2014.
Narendra
Modi-led Gujarat government is not willing to disclose how much it spent
challenging the power to appoint a Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal.
However, it is ready to show the files containing the information.
Mumbai-based
activist Anil Galgali had sought to know from the Gujarat government under the
Right to Information Act how much expenses the state had incurred in hiring
lawyers while challenging Beniwal's decision to appoint a Lokayukta, first in
the Gujarat High Court and then in the Supreme Court. The government lost the
case in both the courts.
Galgali's
query was sent to the Deputy secretary and Public Information officer of the
Law Department DA Vora by the General Adminstration Department's public
information officer Ashok Dave. Vora didn't provide the information and instead
wrote back to Dave saying, "The law offices fees is paid according to Law
Officer Rules 2009 and the expenses incurred by the Government is maintained by
the GAD."
In a separate
letter to Galgali, Vora said the case-wise information cannot be provided to
him, but the activist could come to Gujarat and 'inspect' the files containing
the information. "I had heard a lot about Modi speaking about transparency
in administration. It was a simple query about how much money the government
has spent on hiring lawyers against the decision of Kamla Beniwal. Yet
surprisingly the Modi government is not ready to reveal it," said Galgali.
He added that
the reply of the Gujarat government was against the RTI Act. "How can they
ask people to come over to their state and look at the papers? They are
supposed to provide it by post. Obviously there is something to hide."
The activist
says that he would approach the state Information Commissioner and if possible
would go to Gujarat to see the papers. Gujarat government spokesperson Nitin
Patel was not available for comments at the time of going to press.
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