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Mumbai, October 3: Siddharth Ugade ponders the untidy stack of photocopied government documents on his desk—all 400 pages.
Normally, Ugade (26), a community organiser in Ghatkopar, would be happy. That’s a lot of information to extricate from a government department.
But as Ugade knows, he’s facing a classic case of smug officialdom: They flooded him with page after page but managed to hold back all that they could.
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HIDING THE JUDGE
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The law allows the dissatisfied Ugade to appeal to
an Appellate Authority. Only, the PIO hasn’t communicated to him who
that senior officer is. Eleven weeks later, Ugade’s dissatisfied,
not disheartened. ‘‘Government servants might be flippant about the
public’s right to know,’’ he says. ‘‘But that will change only if
we citizens keep at it.’’ |
On June 28, Ugade used the two-year-old Maharashtra Right to Information (MRTI) Act to find out how corporator and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) funds had been spent in Mumbai’s N ward over the last two years. He also asked how funds were to be spent in the current financial year.
‘‘We work with communities in N ward and wanted to put this information before them and encourage them to get involved,” explains Ugade.
On July 12, the BMC wrote back saying it would take three months (MRTI allows a month) to collate information. The charges would be specified later.
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DEFIANT BABUS
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Anand Waglekar, the Ward Officer for BMC’s N ward is
unapologetic. ‘‘When the act was passed, it was possible to get a
Xerox for 50 paise, not any more,’’he reasons. ‘‘What is wrong in
charging Ugade for the copy we keep? If the next applicant wants the
same information, he will not be charged.’’ And why was Ugade not
told about who he could appeal to? ‘‘I don’t know about that,’’ he
concludes. The board displaying his and the Appellate Authority’s
name is painted on a board in a corner of the ward office—at ceiling
level. |
‘‘On August 30, the Public Information Officer wrote, directing me to pay Rs 800 within a week if I wanted the information—about 400 photocopied sheets,’’ says Ugade.
He paid up, unaware that the official was violating the act, which says the cost per photocopy is 50 paise, not a rupee.
Further, the BMC office, wanting to keep a copy for itself, was asking Ugade to pay for that too!
On September 16, Ugade was handed 360-odd sheets of documents in English and Marathi. He was mystified to find page upon page of technical jargon and poorly explained sets of numbers.
When he navigated the maze, he found that instead of telling him how public money had been spent, all the BMC gave him were estimates for public works.
‘‘There is nothing about the money actually spent,’’ says Ugade. ‘‘Despite charging me Rs 800, the BMC hasn’t bothered to either understand my query or communicate the information intelligibly.’’
Ugade is glad, however, with the estimates for 2004-5. Much of this is ambiguous too, but it will help him to keep track of how works progress.
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