SHE lives up to her reputation—bursting with ideas and, as one information activist says, ‘‘among the brightest faces in drab old Mantralaya’’.
Meet Vandana Krishna, not even a month old as secretary of the General Administration Department and specially in charge of implementing the Maharashtra Right to Information Act, 2002.
She’s upbeat about her new assignment, coordinating with various departments and agencies, issuing clarifications and clearing doubts on what the law prescribes.
She calls the Act a landmark law, ‘‘a really powerful weapon for the citizen, provided he knows what to ask for’’.
Krishna spoke to Newsline about her job and experiences:
Some departments chronically withold information...
The police. We’ve had quite a few hurdles there. The other is the Department of Cooperatives. Several cooperative societies have not even designated public information officers (PIO). All societies—even educational institutions or non-governmental organisations—which have received any aid from the public exchequer must have a PIO.
Dealing with defaulters
There are some genuine difficulties we’re trying to iron out. The biggest is of manpower. You ask for diesel consumption in my department last year and we’ll have to extricate expenses on fuel from the cash register, match these with the kilometres totalled from daily logbooks, calculate averages and finally tabulate all this.
Some officers simply don’t want to part with information
Certainly, there’s a firm culture of secrecy. Some officials don’t want to give information because the applicant may have his own axe to grind, to put it mildly.
I’ve been telling officers that, under the law, information that can be given must be made available regardless of the applicant’s intentions.
Many government offices don’t have even essential information displayed—name of the PIO, appellate authority...
Pune-based Yeshwantrao Chavan Administrative Training Academy, or Yashada, is undertaking a huge exercise, department by department, starting with the health, social welfare, education, woman and child welfare departments.
Our first stop is to implement Section 4 of the Act thoroughly—it deals with maintaining and suo moto publishing from time to time catalogued records of the departments’ functions, the procedure to be followed in the decision-making process and the set norms for the discharge of its functions.
Yashada will help publish and update all this information. Meanwhile, we’re going to ensure that a citizen can at least find the PIO in every office.
All this is only for bureaucrats, nothing for politicians
The law does say that the decision-making process must be published after the decision is made. So, the file with notings by secretaries of various departments, letters from any parties concerned and overrulings by the minister can all be published.
Specific files which should be made public
The khaas baab proposals, or ‘special cases’. A plot of land may be allotted at a price much lower than the market rate. A scheme may be sanctioned though the norms are not met. In these cases, the decisions are made first and the files are processed later, with a request that it be treated as a special case.
The power of this law lies in information. And when it’s known that such details can empower the common man, it’s a deterrent to corruption itself.
FRANCESCA FALCON, 42,
GAOTHAN RESIDENT
SHE ASKED what civic action had been taken on her 9-year-old complaint about a leaking toilet pipeline flooding her narrow alley
SHE GOT no information on what happened to her complaints. But three months after her RTI application, the pipe was repaired
SHAILESH GANDHI,
BUSINESSMAN
HE ASKEDfor information on transfers of police personnel made on requests from politicians
HE GOT to know that 135 policemen had been warned in two years for bringing political pressure on their postings. Warning circulars were issued
SANDEEP BALANI, 39,
FINANCIAL SERVICES PROVIDER
HE ASKED the BMC to tell him if Gulmohar Lane, Andheri, blocked by taxis belongs to the corporation
HE GOT confirmation that the lane was part of the private layout. This bit of official information helped enforce order in the taxi stand
KEWAL SEMLANI, 68,
INFORMATION ACTIVIST
HE ASKED, among various other things, to see cash memos of kerosene issued against his ration card. He has never used his ration card to purchase fuel
HE GOT 11,000 cash memos. His ration shop owner was selling kerosene in the black market, marking them as sales to Semlani and others like him
SIDDHARTH UGADE, 26,
COMMUNITY ORGANISER
HE ASKED for information on how corporator and civic funds had been used in N-Ward (Ghatkopar) over the past two years and plans for the current year
HE GOT charged four times the permitted photo-copying charge. He got only estimate columns; he will appeal for the complete information and a refund
JAMES JOHN, 34,
ANTI-TRAFFICKING ACTIVIST
HE ASKs the civic body for details of road repair being carried out near his Andheri colony
HE GOT to know that the BMC had not sanctioned the work. John will now write to the civic chief to halt the work and inquire against the contractor
HEMA SAMPAT, 51, TEACHER
SHE ASKED how civic funds meant for cleaning of house gullies in Kalbadevi had been spent in the last three years
SHE GOT to know not a paisa of the Rs 70 lakh annual budget had been used for two years. She was overcharged for photocopying and is awaiting a refund
HIRALAL GUPTA, 51, BUILDER
HE ASKEDwhether the Thane Municipal Corporation had permission to dump garbage in the fragile Coastal Regulation Zone area of Mumbra
HE GOT partially incorrect information. The Public Information Officer was penalised Rs 1,000. He’s still fighting the now slowed-down dumping
HOW TO USE THE ACT
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Address your application to the Public Information Officer of the
government department concerned. Use this format. And don’t forget
to add a Rs 10 court fee stamp.
Place & Date:
To: The Public Information Officer, .... Department
1. Full name of the applicant:
2. Address:
3. Particulars of information required
i. Subject matter of information:
ii. The period to which the information relates:
iii. Description of the information required:
iv. Information required in post or person:
v. In case by post: (ordinary, registered or speed)
vi. Purpose for which the information is required
Signature of the applicant:
Place:
Date:
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