Moneylife:
Srinagar: Saturday, 31 January 2015.
Pune-based
RTI activist Qaneez Sukhrani has been selected for the Sajag Nagarik Sangh 2014
RTI Award. Sukhrani has been using RTI since 2003 and often uses the
information to file PILs, like on illegality of making Aadhaar mandatory,
illegal hoarding put out by politicians and misuse of funds by municipal
authorities. Excerpts from an interview with Qaneez Sukhrani.
Moneylife:
When did you first come to know about the Right to Information (RTI) Act?
Qaneez
Sukhrani (QS) : It was way back in 1997 when we were part of a committee headed
by Prakash Kardaley to formulate the Maharashtra RTI Regulation. When the
Regulations first came into force in 2003, my first RTI application was to the
Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB-as it was called then) and the Pune
Municipal Corporation (PMC) seeking copies of audited reports. They ignored my
request so I went in for appeal as there was provision for the same but still
they refused to part with the information. Since there was no provision of an
information commissioner to whom you could file second appeal, I straight away
filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court. On first day
itself the judge gave orders that both PMC and MSEB should provide the
information within six weeks. Even then, they have not provided the information
within six weeks. I threatened to file contempt of court. That’s when MSEB
immediately gave me the copy of the audit report but PMC gave it in fits and
starts. For the first time, I realized that the RTI Act wrests a lot of power
in the hands of citizens. The bureaucracy had conveniently inherited the
Official Secrets Act of British rule and had been using it not to give
information even after five decades of India’s Independence. Thereafter the
Maharashtra’s RTI Regulation came into force in 2003 and Central government’s
RTI Act was implemented in 2005. I continue to use the RTI Act and if need be
file PILs on the basis of the documents that I procure. Apart from late Prakash
Kardaley and the late Gita Vir who were my initial gurus, it is Maj Gen SCN
Jatar, who has guided me since the past two years; teaching me the strict
discipline that should be kept in mind while filing RTIs.
ML: How did
you use the RTI Act after 2005?
QS: After the
national RTI Act came into force in 2005, I went consciously out of active
activism because of personal reasons and decided to concentrate on my job. I
also believe that RTI applications should not be filed frivolously. Because I
was not active, I did not file any RTIs for almost seven years. However, I
wanted to get back to my passion, which is activism so in 2012 I resigned from
my job, eight years before my retirement. Then once again I began to use the
RTI Act vigorously for several issues where the central or state government or
the civic body was spending huge public funds, and / or not being transparent.
ML: Could you
give some examples?
QS: The one
issue that was bothering me was the Aadhaar number. The RTI provided me a good
platform to use it here. I sent RTI application to 35 ministries and public
authorities of the central and state and local self-government bodies, seeking
copies of documents/ correspondence which directs that Aadhaar number is
mandatory for getting passports, gas cylinders and so on, without the bill
being passed in Parliament and despite the Standing Committee on Finance
tabling an adverse report. I received almost 10,000 pages of documents (with
payment of course for all the copies) that partly culminated in filing PIL in
Supreme Court in 2014 by my organization Nagrik Chetna Manch. All the PILs
related to Aadhaar from all over the country have been clubbed together and are
being heard by one bench at SC.
Public
authorities of the central government responded within 30 days to my RTI
queries but the state government was very excruciatingly slow. Election Branch
in Pune was not far behind. Both were pathetic in their responses and most of
their Public Information Officers (PIOs) did not seem to be equipped with
adequate knowledge.
It is
interesting to note that documents, which I have procured from RTI, prove that
Aadhaar is being made compulsory despite the Bill not being passed by both
houses of Parliament. Thereafter, it has not been discussed by either of the
Houses. Over Rs11,000 crore of public money has been spent by the government
and still counting. Our prayer is that all data collected so far should be
de-linked and be destroyed as all of it is being handled by third parties and
companies overseas. Several countries have destroyed it at higher cost as they
found it extremely risky to protect the data. We do not even have a law to
protect personal data. The Information Technology (IT) Act that we have is very
weak.
ML: You have
also campaigned vociferously for illegal hoardings across the city.
QS: Yes, I
get so irritated seeing illegal flexes and hoardings put up by chamchas of
political leaders of all hues. And add to this is the joke that even if they
are asked to remove them, the PMC fines them a mere Rs100 as per the law. It is
advantage to the politicians, who gains a lot of credit by portraying their
faces on such hoardings, even if it is for a day and ends up paying a pittance
for the crime.
I filed an
RTI at the PMC asking for the number of notices sent; any survey the PMC may
have conducted and the number of first information reports (FIRs) filed against
violators of this law. I got a reply stating that 25,779 illegal flexes and
hoardings had been pulled down but not a single FIR had been filed until
February 2014.
In November
2014, I filed a PIL in the High Court and wanted to substantiate my information
with the latest figures that 110,831 illegal flexes and hoardings were pulled
down but FIR lodged against only 38 violators. When I went to file my PIL, I
found that several PILs are pending in this regard since 2011.
I reckoned
that PMC should be applying the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of
Property Act, 1995 which is a stronger Act as putting up such hoardings is a
cognizable offence, inviting a penalty of Rs2,000 or imprisonment up to three
months or both. And this Act says it has to be used above all. The offence
takes places even if the hoarding is on a private property but can be seen from
a public property. Here my prayer mainly is why is PMC so wary of taking action
against such violators and that the cost of pulling down the hoarding should
not be from the public funds but from the violator himself and that police
should be also the authority to give permission where it can be legally put up.
ML: Please
tell us your RTI use for BRT in Pune which is in a mess.
QS: I have
procured 7,500 documents under RTI for the bus rapid transit (BRT) subject in
both PMC and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) (so that I could
compare what both corporations had done / not done). I had sought information
from the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) as well as from the state
government and the Pune civic body. Documents show that no feasibility,
pre-feasibility report, detailed project report has been submitted to MoUD as
per norms. Various irregularities also came to fore where it was found that
there was no financial planning, no vision used while using up funds. Collating
many important points on irregularities, I wrote to the Chairman of the
Standing Committee of Urban Development, New Delhi to constitute an Enquiry
Commission. Their team paid a visit to Pune, wrote an adverse report, which was
tabled in both Houses of Parliament in November 2014. Now all the authorities
have to file a say to each of my points. Because there was no financial plan
put in place by PMC, suddenly funds dried up for one of the seven most
important features for BRTS to be successful i.e. Integrated Traffic Management
System (IMTS).
After PMC’s
Standing Committee repeatedly ignored approving this amount, I wrote to the
Chief Minister of Maharashtra to dissolve the civic panel under Section 243U of
74th Amendment of the Constitution. Thereafter I filed an RTI to find out if
any order had been issued by the CM. I came to know through the reply that the
CM has instructed the PMC to develop an integrated traffic system for which
Rs11 crore have been sanctioned.
I have also
filed RTI regarding bus shelters, which were erected at the cost of about Rs33
lakhs each but PMC had not provided any security. So these were misused by
miscreants, set on fire by vandals, became a den for gamblers and drunkards,
and home for the homeless. I recommended repeatedly that security guards should
be put in place. After getting fed-up, I filed an RTI. A week later I got to
know that 99 security guards have been given approval and they are going
through the police verification process. Of course there are many more
irregularities that were unearthed.
ML: What is
your advice to citizens regarding use of RTI?
QS: I would
say that it should be judiciously used and one should not go overboard as it
will otherwise become a mockery. Any citizen should file RTI only if the
information can be used to reach rightful end. Also, civic officers sometimes
fear giving information under RTI, so we should allay their fears. If both
sides stop getting confrontationist, RTI Act will bring in more transparency.
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