Moneylife: Mumbai: Thursday, January 11, 2018.
Several Right
to Information (RTI) activists, including former Central Information
Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like
Moneylife Foundation has demanded BrihanMumbai Municipal Corp (BMC) and its
Commissioner Ajoy Mehta to put in public domain all application and replies provided,
instead of calling RTI users as ‘blackmailers’ and blocking RTI applications
from Praja, an NGO.
Mr Gandhi, in
a strong worded letter sent to the BMC Commissioner, says, “For too long have
RTI users and activists tolerated the arrogance, pompousness and illegal
actions of public servants who wish to continue as kings and courtiers. You and
BMC are consistently insulting citizens and trying to besmirch a right, which
exposes the Municipal Corporation and its misdeeds.”
“RTI is a
fundamental right derived from Article 19 (1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
But the BMC officials are apparently behaving in a completely illegal fashion
by defaming the RTI users as blackmailers. This situation has arisen owing to
the inspiration of BMC Commissioner Mr Mehta,” he added.
According to
Pune-based RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, the transparency law cannot be misused
by anyone. He says, “These are completely baseless allegations that RTI is been
misused. Public authorities need to fear RTI only if they have done something
wrong and then only such authorities will say that the RTI activists do
blackmail or extort money for their personal gains.”
In his
letter, Mr Gandhi cited on records statements made by BMC officials Nidhi
Choudhari and Devendra Jain. Mr Jain, who is Assistant Municipal Commissioner
in BMC had filed a police compliant naming 70 citizens, majority of them RTI
users, as ‘extortionists and blackmailers’. However, he could not provide any
evidence and was reprimanded by the State Information Commission (SIC).
RTI activist
Anil Galgali feels that public authorities are indirectly supporting RTI users.
“If they do their duties for which they get paid, and follow rules and
regulations, there is no need for
activists to file RTI and ask for information. These authorities are
compelling citizens to use RTI because it is the only way how citizens will
come to know their misdeeds. The officials, instead of blaming RTI users, needs
to do an introspection,” he added.
In an order
issued in October 2017, BMC Commissioner Mr Mehta allegedly declared Praja, an
NGO and its employees as ‘persona non grata’, which resulted in BMC officials
refusing to respond to RTI queries from the NGO, Mr Gandhi pointed out.
Moneylife
Foundation feels that all public authorities, including BMC should strictly
follow Section 4 of the RTI Act and put in public domain all information
mandated under the law.
Mr Gandhi has
also sent a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis citing
instances of high-handedness of BMC officials while dealing with RTI queries.
Another
instance which Mr Gandhi has shared in the letter is related with Technical
Advisory Committee (TAC) set up by the BMC. “The TAC suggested many actions to
increase transparency and accountability. Some of these were putting all the
building files, data from your SAP system, complaints, RTI applications and
their responses, permissions for road repairs on your website, and making the
website user friendly and faster. There were many more, most of which were not
followed. In fact, when the TAC started insisting on its recommendations being
followed you disbanded it in an uncouth manner. I might point out that if RTI
applications and responses were put on the website, no blackmailing could
occur. All the transparency measures have been outlined in Department of
Personnel and Training (DoPT)’s office memorandum and have been reiterated in
Maharashtra Government Resolution (GR). “Despite DoPT’s OM, State Government’s
GR, and TAC follow up, the BMC resolutely refuses to follow the requirements of
the RTI Act and defies all of these. Since TAC was actively pursuing these and
pointing out the huge gaps you took a decision to disband it. If these
transparency measures had been followed, BMC would have gained citizen’s
respect and better governance would have been possible. I agree that there
would have been a huge reduction in the bribes and the corruption revenue would
have taken a downturn,” says Mr Gandhi.
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