RTI act turns great tool for govt officials

Daily Pioneer: Lucknow: Tuesday, 01 March 2016.

Right to Information (RTI) Act is not only facilitating government officials as a potential weapon but also a cheapest way for getting their dues.

Some glaring example in the recent past had buttressed the above facts after the complainant reportedly get their dues, pension or land etc just on the orders of the Information Commissioners. Interestingly, in couple of cases even the Judiciary failed to ensure quick justice to the aggrieved persons but a single order of the State Information Commissioner’s office had reportedly forwarded much needed relief.

In one of the example, one Har Narain Singh, a native of Moradabad, who retired from Nagar Nigam there had filed RTI seeking payment of his outstanding pension, leave encashment, house rent allowance etc pending between 1986 to 2006. The department did not reply to his query but when he filed an appeal in the court of Information Commissioner, Hafiz Usman, and the latter issued necessary orders, he received the entire arrears of about Rs 1.80 lakh. Likewise, Purshotam Das Verma, who retired from Muzaffarnagar Development Authority, had also sought payment of his arrears regarding pension, gratuity and other benefits. When he not received any reply, he too filed an appeal in Usman’s court and on his intervention, the Department paid him Rs 1.75 lakh.

In one more case related to Amroha district, one Jogendra, had sought information from Basic Siksha Adhikari about the amount of pension paid to dependent of assistant teacher of Junior High School at Chuopka, who died in September 2007. BSA reportedly avoided to answer the query but when the matter reached in the court of Usman, the family of the bereaved get extra benefit of Rs 2.50 lakh as arrears. In yet another case one Abdul Gaffaur, hailing from Baleda hamlet of Saharanpur, was working as assistant teacher in primary school at Khan Alampur. While serving as teacher, he died on duty on November 21, 1991. After his death, his widow Kaneez Begum started getting family pension but suddenly the Education Department stopped the pension in November 2012, without giving any reason. As Kaneez Begum is solely dependant of pension so he knocked doors of all the persons concerned but finally she filed a suit in Usman’s court which subsequently forced the Education Department officials, the woman immediate start getting her pension and pending dues of the last 32-months was also cleared.

Similarly, RTI Act helped a teacher of the Hindu Inter College in Bijnore, to get promotion which was up till now has been stalled by the college management. Ramveer Singh, posted as assistant teacher in the Hindu Inter College at Chandpur in Bijnore, submitted an application before Hafiz Usman, claiming that he was not given promotion when he was entitled for it. Ramveer, appraised Usman, that a post of lecturer was lying vacant in the college and he was senior most to be promoted but the college management refused to give him the post, making false claim that the post is of lecturer in Hindi/Sanskrit. In this case also just after IC’s intervention, the authorities concerned immediately gave promotion to Ramveer and appraised the IC about it.

In another case, a stationary supplier was not getting his pending dues of 1.73 lakh of the material which he supplied during election in 2011-12 in Saharanpur. After all his efforts went in vein, the supplier knocked the door at Usman’s court and in one order, he received his pending dues. One Mohan Lal, hailing from Nai Basti in Rampur, was running for the last three years to get his dues of Rs 67,605 from Executive Engineer Irrigation Office but intervention of Usman, helped him to get his money. In Lucknow, widow of one Lalit Mohan Srivastava, was not getting revised pension but after she filed an appeal with Usman’s court, she started received revised pension with an increase of 113 percent. One Pankaj Agarwal of Basic Siksha Office in Rampur also get his pending house allowance dues of Rs 1,22,955 just after Usman summoned the officer concerned. In one more glaring example of power of RTI Act, a farmer got back his land after about two decades in Sultanpur district.