Maharashtra RTI Rules Amendment – The Process began in 2009, unknown to Civil Society

2 July 2012, Mumbai:  RTI activists of other states should take a lesson from the experience of Maharashtra RTI activists, and be very alert. Maybe they should all file RTI applications to their Law and Judiciary department and General Administration Department to find out what is going on. Because, by reading the documents procured under RTI from General Administration Department by RTI activist G R Vora (            9869195785      ,grvora1@gmail.com), we are surprised to find that the process of amendment was quietly going on for the past 2-3 years, unknown to all of us. See the dates circled on page 4 of part 1 of this RTI reply: http://tinyurl.com/GRV-Maha-RTI-Rules-Amndmnt-dox

[Note: GR Vora got 60 pages of government documents in English and Marathi, totaling about 45 mb. This is divided into two parts to facilitate download.]

Maharashtra activists were taken by surprise a couple of months earlier, when we learned about this amendment post-facto from an unofficial source – the March edition of a private publication sold outside Mumbai’s city civil court:http://tinyurl.com/Mrashtra-RTIRulesAmend-Jan2012   

The community of RTI activists and users of Maharashtra felt betrayed that the state government had not taken us into confidence by holding a public consultation. They reacted very strongly. Some activists have challenged this amendment in Bombay High Court.

We requests our fellow activists – especially those who are comfortable analyzing Marathi documents – to study these documents and share their understanding with all of us on internet. Quite probably, there will be lessons in it for RTI activists from all states on how to be more watchful, and not get taken by surprise in future.

Warm Regards,

Krish

            98215 88114      

thebravepedestrian?AT?gmail.com

Citizens & RTI activists: Useful Info in Mumbai Police RTI Disclosure on Internet

7th June 2012, Mumbai: Mumbai Police has made a genuine effort to be transparent. This PDF File is very informative for citizens and RTI activists: http://www.mumbaipolice.org/right_of_information/Right_of_Information.pdf

Useful features are highlighted in this file (i.e. same PDF file with highlights):http://tinyurl.com/Mumbai-Police-RTI-Disclosure

SEVEN USEFUL THINGS:

1)      THE LIST OF 97 REGISTERS MAINTAINED BY MUMBAI POLICE COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE on page 10-12 is very useful. RTI activists can simply ask for copy of pages of a particular register between two cut-off dates e.g. 1 Jan 2009 to 31 Dec 2011. Or they can ask for inspection of particular registers.

2)      PERIOD OF PRESERVATION OF EACH REGISTER on page 13 makes it easy to file RTI applications and reduce chances of arbitrary denial.

3)      POWERS & DUTIES of Mumbai Police Officers & Employees are explained from page 4 to 9.

4)      ORGANIZATIONAL CHART on page 3 makes the Mumbai police hierarchy clear to laymen.

5)      VARIOUS OFFICERS’ PHONE AND FAX numbers are given page 16 onwards.

6)      VISITING HOURS for citizens etc. are specified on page 88.

7)      PIOS, APIOS & FIRST APPELLATE AUTHORITIES’ phone numbers and addresses are given page 89 onwards.

This MAHARASHTRA POLICE WEBSITE also gives the official “mahapolice.gov.in” email addresses of 174 cops in Maharashtra: http://mahapolice.gov.in/mahapolice/jsp/temp/mail.jsp

[Note: I selected the email ids of 10 Mumbai police officers from this list. Four of the addresses bounced my message i.e. my emails were hopefully delivered to six email ids. Hope the cops are checking these email addresses, because many still prefer to use yahoo and gmail for official purposes!]

The Maharashtra Police website also appears to have some other useful features e.g. tracking the progress of a missing person complaint, etc. But do these features actually work? Someone will have to test it and see.

Warmly,

Krish

9821588114

thebravepedestrian[AT]gmail.com

Latest Info Commission​er Selection: PMO played fair, Oppn Leader played foul

15 May, 2012: There is good news: documents procured by activists GirishMittal and Lokesh Batra under RTI indicate that the latest batch of CentralInformation Commissioners (Rajiv Mathur, Vijai Sharma and Basant Seth) wereselected by a more transparent process than earlier. The central government hasdefinitely mended its ways and set a good precedent for state governments.  By calling for applications and having applicationsscreened by a Search Committee, the government has yielded to two long standingdemands of RTI activists.

However, Leader ofOpposition Sushma Swaraj short-circuited the process, it seems. She put up twonames that were not selected by the Search Committee, and one of them became aCIC. New CICs Rajiv Mathur and Vijai Sharma were on a shortlist of nine personsafter a screening process for 214 contenders. But new CIC Basant Seth waseliminated by the Search Committee, and re-entered the shortlist as SushmaSwaraj’s candidate, it appears from the below documents.

THE PROCESS FOLLOWED THISTIME:

1)      OnOct 29, 2011, DOPT issued this circular inviting applications from all eligiblepersons, including civil society: http://tinyurl.com/DOPT-Circular-Nov2011

2)      Fromthe applications received before the final date, a list of all 214 applicants wasdrawn up: http://tinyurl.com/List-CIC-Applicants-Apr2012

3)      TheSearch Committee seemingly evaluated 214 applicants “on the basis of width,diversity, relevance and length of experience of the applicants, with some preferencefor legal background and strategic exposure”. Also, inputs were sought fromIntelligence Bureau and Central Vigilance Commission. All this is stated in theminutes of the Selection Committee meeting on 23 February 2012: http://tinyurl.com/MOM-PMs-Selection-Cmte-Feb2012

IT WILL BE WORTH GETTING THESE DETAILS UNDER RTI:

a)     Copies of all correspondence betweenDOPT and PMO concerning constituting Search Committee, defining its terms ofreference, etc.

b)     Copies of documents showing the criteriaand procedure used by the Search Committee for screening the 214 names andarriving at the shortlist of nine names.

c)     What inputs were solicited and receivedby the PMO, Selection Committee and/or Screening Committee from IB and CVC?Copies of all correspondence, reports received etc.

d)     Copies of all correspondence by OppositionLeader Sushma Swaraj with PMO, Search Committee, Selection Committee andcandidates for the CIC’s post.

WHAT IS A SEARCHCOMMITTEE?

Search     Committees guidelines 1994: http://tinyurl.com/Search-Cmte-Circ-1994  

Search     Committee guidelines 2007: http://tinyurl.com/Search-Cmte-Circ-2007

IMPROVEMENT OVER EARLIER SELECTIONS:

Notwithstanding possible deficiencies of the process followed inthis round of selections, it is far better than earlier selections when A N Tiwari (now retired) and Satyananda Mishra (now the Chief CIC), whowere both DoPT Secretaries, selected themselves for the post of InformationCommissioner.   Tiwari and Mishra disregarded dozens of applicationsaddressed to them and made the shortlist list so short that it reduced thePrime Minister’s Selection Committee into a mere rubber stamp. Girish Mittal’sRTI findings revealed this shocking abuse of position:  http://tinyurl.com/ANT-SM-Self-Selection

To understandethical and legal issues in selecting CICs, read this: http://tinyurl.com/CIC-Selections-legal-issues

The present changes in selection procedure are the result of anongoing struggle since 2009. Background material: http://tinyurl.com/CIC-Selections-background

Warm Regards,
KrishnarajRao
98215 88114
thebravepedestrian@gmail.com

Why has Annaji’s roar silenced Mrs Smita Pednekar’s voice?

The Jan Lokpal Bill debate has marginalized the voices of public servants like municipal employees and bus drivers. Why? Don’t they deserve a say in framing a law that will affect their daily lives?

Fellow Members of Civil Society,

Come, let us put aside our virtuous outrage for a moment, and step into the shoes of one of those ordinary men and women running our public transport, water supply and other civic services. For instance, let us see life through the eyes of Mrs Smita Pratap Pednekar.

Mrs Pednekar sells tickets at a railway counter; you and your family members may have bought a ticket from her. She lives in the Railway Employees’ Colony at Dahisar, a distant suburb of Mumbai. She and her husband Pratap work for Indian Railways.

Every day after work, Mrs Pednekar commutes by train, buys vegetables and fish and gets home to her children and elderly mother-in-law. Then she cooks dinner before her husband returns home.

Mrs Pednekar does not get envelopes of cash under the table. Her conscience is clear, but she is afraid. What she fears most is office politics. She is worried about the prospect of being posted at a distant office. Both she and her husband have insecurities about loss of seniority, loss of increments etc, as some of their corrupt colleagues enjoy undue influence.

Mrs Pednekar avoids taking sides in any controversy. She pretends not to know anything. But in January, her husband was required to give evidence against a colleague at a departmental enquiry. Since then, some people at her office have been giving her dirty looks and stopped sharing their lunch with her. She is constantly afraid that they are looking for opportunities to victimize her.

With the whole of India shouting patriotic slogans like ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ in one voice, Mrs Smita Pednekar has lost her voice.

Nowadays, silence dominates the Pednekar household. There is none of the usual light conversation when the family sits down on the floor with stainless-steel thalis, and Mrs Pednekar serves fish curry and rice. She tells the children to eat in silence. She scolds her mother-in-law for switching on TV news channels, and makes her switch off the television.

Mrs Pednekar used to discuss current topics and politics within the family, but now she keeps her thoughts to herself. She changes the topic when the children ask why Anna Hazare fasted at Ramlila Maidan, and what is the Jan Lokpal Bill all about. One day, they came home from school wearing Gandhi topis painted with the words, ‘I am Anna Hazare’. She has had a sinking feeling in her stomach since that day.

On Raksha Bandhan, Mrs Pednekar visited her brother’s house on the 20th floor of Oberoi Woods, Goregaon. Her brother and sister-in-law are rich; they have private sector jobs. While they were having lunch together, a news channels was loudly discussing Anna Hazare’s insistence on including the junior staff of government under the Jan Lokpal Bill. This triggered a conversation about how the whole nation was up in arms against junior staff and their corruption. Her husband Pratap took a stand against the Jan Lokpal Bill, and loudly argued with her brother and sister-in-law, and everybody else who was working in the private sector. Alarmed by the rising voices, Smita gently pinched her husband, called him inside and pleaded with him. “What will people think? They will say that you are supporting corruption! We are government employees; remember that and keep quiet!” she whispered. The couple made some excuses and hurriedly left as the others loudly continued the discussion in their absence.

Mrs Pednekar is in awe of Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, and other great people fasting in all over the country and debating corruption on television. Surely they know all about corruption, otherwise why would they be talking so loudly, she reasons. She thinks that a “strong Lokpal Bill” is generally a good thing if it makes the country cleaner and less corrupt. But the point of the Bill should not be to threaten people like her with enquiries, penalties and imprisonment, she feels.

She feels greatly confused by Annaji’s demand for such harsh provisions against her; the fact that a good man like him says that he will go on indefinite fast for this demand makes her very uncomfortable. Is Annaji with me or against me, she wonders. “Annaji is a good and simple man. So why is he fasting for punishing good and simple people like me and my husband?” she wonders.

Mrs Pednekar’s experiences have given her reason to fear legal processes. She believes that proceedings generally go against those who are less able to defend themselves, rather than those who are truly guilty. So she fears that Jan Lokpal Bill will punish people like herself, who are voiceless. She is afraid that more resourceful colleagues will connive together to use such a law to target her and her husband.

But she is in no position to say all this, because she and her husband are government servants, and therefore excluded from “civil society”. Everybody is listening only to civil society nowadays; they think government servants are all corrupt, and therefore their views don’t count.

Respected Annaji & Arvind, the deafening roar of “civil society” has isolated and silenced Mrs Smita Pednekar’s voice. Will you please give her back her voice? Will you please hold consultations at Railway Employees Colony and other colonies where government employees live? Will you go to various employees associations?

Will you go there and explain to them why there is a need for a Jan Lokpal Bill that punishes Group B, C And D employees? And will you please hear and understand what such employees have to say in this matter?

Warm Regards,

Krish

98215 88114

Activists, be confident. Apply for posts of SIC & CIC

Dear fellow citizens & activists,

To apply
· for the post of Central Info. Commissioner, go to http://tinyurl.com/applyforcic

· To apply for Maharashtra SIC, go to http://tinyurl.com/ApplyForMahaSIC

· To apply for Tamil Nadu SIC, go to www.tinyurl.com/applyforTNSIC

Karo zyaada ka iraada! Each of us may send applications for all of the above posts!

Why? Why now?

It is time for us in civil-society to confidently claim what belongs to us. RTI Act Section 12(5) and 15(5) make it clear that the post of Information Commissioner is primarily for us. This post is currently going to retired bureaucrats by default, as members of civil society are not applying at all! It is important for us as citizens to immediately shed our diffidence.

All the Chief Information Commissioners of States and Centre, and a large number of Information Commissioners, will retire in 2010, having completed their five-year term. Many vacancies will open up this year and next year. We must act now to ensure that members of civil society become Information Commissioners in the next round of appointments. It is equally important to ensure that appointments happen through a transparent procedure, and not according to the favours of ministers and top bureaucrats.

As part of a concerted civil society campaign, we all need to promptly apply in large numbers for the posts of State & Central Information Commissioners. Benefits:

* Firstly, there will be pressure on the system to appoint some good candidates from civil society as CICs or Chief CIC.

* Secondly, in order to cope with the large numbers of candidates from civil society, the government will be forced to introduce proper criteria and procedures for short-listing.

* Finally, if the government arbitrarily ignores our names and selects its own people without due procedure, eligibility criteria etc., we will have the locus standi to go to our High Courts with writ petitions against such appointments. There is a good chance of convincing the Court that this is violation of articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

Please note: Your applying for the post does not mean that you have to be part of the legal battle that may follow. You are free not to do so. So participate in this campaign without fear and anxiety!

Warm Regards,


Madhav Vishnubhatta , Chennai, 98403 27303
Krishnaraj Rao, Mumbai, 98215 88114