Moneylife: Mumbai: Friday, December 01, 2017.
The Municipal
Corp of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) had dismantled the Technical Advisory Committee
(TAC) set up to bring transparency reform, especially in terms of
implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act. What is more shocking is the
MCGM did not even have shown a courtesy to inform this decision to citizen
members of the TAC. Members of the TAC, set up in April 2013 by the then Municipal
Commissioner Sitaram Kunte, include Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information
Commissioner and RTI activists Bhaskar Prabhu and Dr Sharad Wagle besides civic
officials from MCGM. The citizen members came to know about the decision only
when RTI activist Girish Mittal filed an application seeking information on the
TAC.
“Apart from
the fact that the current Municipal Commissioner did not even have the courtesy
of informing the citizen members, it appears our persistence irked MCGM and may
have prompted this rude action. I wish they implemented the transparency
measures we had proposed. Mumbai’s citizens monitoring of their Corporation can
really bring about good governance, better vigilance, less corruption and a
better Mumbai. It is sad to see a very good initiative of Mr Kunte being rudely
ended thus,” says Mr Gandhi.
In an RTI
reply of 20 November 2017 the MCGM stated that ‘since now, there exists no need
to continue with the meetings of the TAC, henceforth the TAC stands suspended’.
Mr Kunte was
much inclined to bring transparency and accountability in the system. With
sheer determination to promote the same, he had constituted this TAC in April
2013. But nobody had imagined that this transparency initiative would blink
only for a shorter duration.
The Committee
was headed by Mr Gandhi. In over four years, the TAC held 41 meetings apart
from conducting numerous meetings individually with other officers.
The details
of the meetings are here
Worth
mentioning is the fact that, Mr Gandhi along with Mr Prabhu and Dr Wagle did
not charge even a penny as the remuneration or conveyance allowance for these
meetings and workshops.
Mr Gandhi
says, the focus of TAC meetings and workshops was particularly on the
implementation of Section 4 (suo-moto disclosure) of RTI Act, which could
further reduce the burden of applications and also help bring transparency in
the system.
“However the
observations made by the TAC indicated a very slow rate of compliances to their
recommendations and thus moved at a snail’s pace,” he added.
On 22 May
2017, a meeting was held by Mr Gandhi and others with the incumbent Municipal
Commissioner Ajoy Mehta requesting him to work on these recommendations. Mr
Mehta extending his complete support said that “MCGM has no information which
cannot be disclosed to citizens” but unfortunately nothing happened later.
Subsequently
Mr Gandhi sent another reminder to the Municipal Commissioner on 27 May 2017
but none yielded any results.
On 13
November 2017, RTI activist Girish Mittal filed an application seeking details
on the TAC and its implementation on the recommendations made therein. Then
only the citizen members came to know about dismantling of the TAC.
“It is really
hoped now that the MCGM acts on those recommendations and undertakes measures
to set forth a good example of transparency and accountability in the country,”
Mr Gandhi says.
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