Mumbai
Mirror: Mumbai: Tuesday, June 04, 2019.
The
Central Information Commission (CIC) bench has slammed the Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT) for an "inordinate delay of five years" on its
part in considering a state government request for the commencement of an
investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into allegations related
to malpractices in the distribution of drug-equipment kits to female health
workers under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The DoPT exercises
administrative superintendence over the CBI. The CIC also pulled up DoPT for
not responding to a query by a Right To Information (RTI) applicant, who wanted
to know the reason behind the delay to issue a notification for entrusting the
probe to the CBI, alleging that the DoPT "sat" on his file for five
years.
In
2014, the Uttarakhand government had issued a notification to refer to the CBI
the probe into allegations of malpractices in the state's Department of Medical
Health & Family Welfare in the distribution of the drugequipment kits, also
known as Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) Kits. The DoPT informed the applicant,
Rameshchandra Sharma, that the "relevant file" on the government's
request for a CBI probe "was not traceable". However, the DoPT subsequently
claimed that the file had been "traced" and is "under consideration",
at a time the RTI applicant had approached a CIC bench for non-provision of
response by DoPT to his query. According to the central government, the ASHA
health worker would be the "first port of call for any health-related
demands of deprived sections of the population, especially women and children, who
find it difficult to access health services".
In
his order, Information Commissioner (IC) Divya Prakash Sinha, who heard the RTI
applicant's complaint, said: "(The) Commission concedes with the averment
of the appellant that the inordinate delay of five years in considering the
case and the factum of misplacing/losing the relevant file by DoPT is rather
'abominable and allows enough room for casting aspersions on the government',
as it affects the interests of an entire community of underprivileged women and
children."
The
order further said: "(The) Commission takes grave exception to the fact
that the relevant file was simply rendered as untraceable by DoPT and has been
traced out only when the Second Appeal has been listed for hearing, thus
obstructing the appellant's right to information till date.
"This
leads to a 'reasonable apprehension' that the withholding of information was
rather deliberate." The IC marked a copy of his order to the secretary,
DoPT, "to take cognisance of the adverse observations of the Commission".
In
its response to the CIC bench, the DoPT representative "submitted that
there are 13 pages of file noting and 199 pages of correspondence"
The
IC ordered DoPT to provide a copy of the 13 pages of file noting and 199 pages
of correspondence as available in the relevant file to the RTI applicant.
Abhishek Sharan
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