Hindustan
Times: Bhopal: Monday, 14 September 2015.
The Gwalior
bench of MP high court has issued a notice to the superintendent of Jayarogya
Hospital, Gwalior, asking him to explain why he should not be accused of fraud
for not providing desired information to a right to information applicant after
charging him Rs1,000 for the purpose.
Hearing the
petition filed on behalf of RTI activist Ashish Chaturvedi, who is also a
whistleblower in the multi-crore Vyapam scam, a single bench of justice DK
Paliwal sought a reply from Dr JS Sikarwar, asking him to respond within two
weeks as to why the application of the petitioner to book him for fraud under
section 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC should not be conceded.
Appearing on
behalf of Chaturvedi, senior counsel DK Singh in his petition said when his
client sought a definite information from the hospital administration through
RTI on November 14, 2014, he was asked to pay Rs1,000 as fee. He paid the fee
on December 26, 2014, but was not furnished the information.
When
information was not provided for over six months, Chaturvedi tried to lodge a
complaint with the Kampoo police station in Gwalior against Dr Sikarwar on
charges of cheating, but the police refused. Thereafter the RTI activist moved
the court on July 2 seeking its intervention. Chaturvedi also sought the
court's intervention to direct the police that denial of information under RTI,
after all formalities were completed by an applicant, should also be treated as
cheating.
Talking to
HT, Ashish said RTI has become largely ineffective in MP as information is
often denied to an applicant without assigning any reason. “In the absence of
provision for punitive action for not providing information, public information
officers and their superiors in various offices of the state government simply
don't care to provide information if it were detrimental to the interest of
powerful people in that office,” he said.
“Dr Sikarwar
is not providing me information because the information concerns purchase of
orthopaedic implants under Deendayal health scheme when head of neurology
department at Gajraraja Medical College, Dr SN Aiyengar, was the
superintendent. He has tremendous clout, so I am being denied of the
information. This situation prevails everywhere in the state,” the RTI activist
said.
When
contacted former chief information commissioner (CIC) PP Tiwari said he would
not comment on the matter that was sub judice. “But it's true that RTI itself
provides that public information officer (PIOs) can't be prosecuted under any
law for failure in their duty and it acts as a shield for them,” he said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
