Counterview:
Ahmedabad: Sunday, 22 November 2015.
A fact-finding
team of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, visited
Banaskantha district to inquire into the incident of murder of Ratan Sinh, who
had made an RTI plea to find out facts regarding the relief amount distributed
in the wake of the devastating floods that rocked the district in in June-July
2015. Following is the text of the report:
During
June-July 2015, some of the districts of Gujarat, such as Amreli, Banaskantha,
Patan, Surendranagar etc. witnessed torrential and heavy rains that caused
heavy loss of lives – human animals both and also damaged farm crops and
fertile top layer of agriculture land due to heavy floods in the villages
located on river banks. State and Central Government had announced relief
packages too. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) decided to
constitute fact-finding team to meet people and get first hand details from the
people of some of the worst affected villages of Amreli district.
PUCL sent
another team only recently to inquire about the murder of Ratan Sinh, a farmer
who had lodged complaints to the chief minister’s office (CMO), the village sarpanch
and the block development officer, called taluka development officer (TDO) in
Gujarat about severe corruption in the distribution of relief package. He wrote
to the CM to withdraw all the relief amounts paid to people due to heavy
corruption, and carry out re-survey, as the relief has not reached to genuinely
affected persons, and if reached, it is pretty small amount, whereas
influential persons have grabbed cheques of big amounts, and that, too, in the
different names of the same family.
PUCL has also
tried to access information through RTI, particularly from the Gujarat State
Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA). The following is the status of the
Gujarat government so far as disaster management is concerned based on the
information collected.
Status of
Gujarat government for Disaster Management & Mitigation
The Gujarat
government had initiated by establishing Gujarat State Disaster Management
Authority (GSDMA) to mitigate or minimize losses due to natural calamities. The
role of the GSDMA is to prepare and equip government and citizens to face the
pre- and post-calamity period.
As per
website of the Gujarat government, it has created adequate structure at
district and block (taluka) level. GSDMA provides training and is also
responsible for the planning of disaster management.
PUCL had
sought information under RTI Act, including disaster management plans for
Amreli, Banaskantha, Patan and Surendranagar districts, including what steps
were taken to save the lives of people trapped in flooded areas, how many
people were trained, and what kind of training was provided etc.
The
information received by Jatin Sheth (PUCL) through his RTI application reveals
that there was no advanced planning. The answers to various questions are ‘we
have zero information’! Amreli district had only one boat for rescue of people,
and that too iwas out of order.
The Disaster
Management Plans displayed on the website are partial and without clarity.
Further, they are not in regional language, Gujarati. People are unaware of any
information about them. The government has been found absolutely ineffective
towards disaster preparedness and mitigation.
The climate
change department, too, does not have even its own website. Therefore, people
do not have any access to information about them.
Survey of
damages and losses and payment of relief fund
No
information of relief fund survey is available online as the information is not
displayed on any of the websites of the government, including the state
government, the district collector and so on. The questions such as who
received what relief amount, what were the parameters fixed for survey team,
what to do and whom to approach in case of injustice, how many days it will
take to resolve the complaint lodged etc. remain unanswered.
Many
drawbacks in survey. Government does not have any planning for re-survey
The
information which is supposed to be declared voluntarily at the village level
has also not been declared and therefore the same had been demanded by Ratan Sinh’s
friend Harkhabhai under the RTI Act. However, that information has not been
provided till today, nor has it been declared at the village level.
The cheque
amounts of relief funds differed from the amount shown in the list of amount
shown against beneficiaries’ names. The payment register of the taluka
development officer had incomplete information. No transparency and
accountability was observed in relief fund distribution.
Risks for
people who raised their voice against injustice
Ratan Sinh,
Harkhabhai and others had sent their complaint to Chief Minister on October 7,
2015 through fax and later by post. As per routine, the same was transferred to
the lower level on October 12. Harkhabhai filed RTI application on October 12.
Instead of taking any action, the administration leaked the information to
vested interests of the village. The accused attacked Ratan Sinh saying that he
was lodging complaints against them.
Protection of
whistleblowers is the responsibility of the government. Instead, the government
created circumstances that led to Ratan Sinh’s murder. By declaring the
whistleblower’s names, it put his life at risk.Even after one month of the
murder, two accused out of four have not yet been arrested, and the two who
were arrested have been freed on bail.
Following the
murder of Ratan Singh, a total of 11 activists have been murdered in Gujarat.
No effective actions have been taken in any of the cases.
RTI
activists who have been murdered in Gujarat
·
Amit Jethva
·
Nadeem Saiyad
·
Vishram Dodiya
·
Jabar Dan Gadhvi
·
Amit Kapasiya
·
Shailesh Patel
·
Ratan Sinh Patel-Chaudhary
·
Rayabhai Gohil
·
Ketan Solanki
·
Jayesh Barot
·
Yogesh Shekhar
Information
Commission misled
When a
complaint was lodged to Information Commission, the department said that there
was no RTI application pending of Ratan Sinh, which was incorrect, and an
effort to hide facts. In fact, Ratan Sinh, Harkhabhai and two other villagers
were complainants. After finding that no actions were taken, Harkhabhai files
RTI application seeking information of what actions were taken in response to
Ratan Sinh’s complaint. We believe that government has not given all facts to
the commission.
The status
of government offices in newly declared talukas
The
government took pride and declared as an achievement by creating new talukas.
Suigam taluka office has almost no staff even after 18 months of creation. One
or two persons have been placed in this office transferring from Vav – another
taluka. The taluka development officer (TDO) informed us that he was unable to
answer any of the complaints or RTI application since he had no staff.
Demands
from Government
· List of flood relief fund beneficiaries and the amount
paid to them must be publicly disclosed by placing the information on public
notice boards in all the affected villages
· All the accused involved in the murder of Ratan Sinh bhai
must be arrested immediately
· A high powered committee be appointed to inquire
irregularities in flood relief
· Government should organize Public hearing at Suigam
taluka place
· Government should immediately make all information
available online
· Government should appoint grievance resolution officer to
resolve complaints
· There is a need to rethink guidelines for survey and
deciding flood relief amounts
· Government should recover flood relief given for the same
reason to more than one person living in the same house
Members
of the fact-finding team: Jatin Sheth – PUCL, Pankti Jog – Mahiti Adhikar
Gujarat Pahel, Mahesh Pandya – Paryavaran Mitra and activist, Nita Mahadev –
Gujarat Lok Samiti, Meenakshi Joshi – Movement for Secular Democracy
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