(This is
the 3rd of a series of exposures being brought to you by Veteran
Major P M Ravindran, Kalpathy who can be contacted at raviforjustice@gmail.com. The 1st,
including the introduction, is 140312-RTIA-Exposing the Idiots and Traitors amoung
Public Servants-O/o The DC Pkd and is available at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2014/03/140312-rtia-exposing-idiots-and.html.
The 2nd, 140331-RTIA-Exposing the Idiots And Traitors amoung Public
Servants-The KSIC is available at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2014/03/140331-rtia-exposing-idiots-and.html.
Watch out for more at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com)
On 5th
Sep 2012, I wrote to the Governor and the Chief Minister of Kerala:
While looking for some
info I came across this bit at http://www.prd.kerala.gov.in/gov.htm
'...The Governor is
only the nominal head of the state....'
I am shocked that an
official website is churning out such blasphemous info about the 1st public
servant in the State. As per the Constitution the Governor is the Head of the
State and the Executive and nowhere is it mentioned that s/he is a nominal head
only.
I did not
get any acknowledgment but later I found that it has been changed to ‘He/She is the constitutional head of the
State.’ So far so good, but I am left wondering if there is any other head
of state other than the constitutional head of state. Anyhow this is not the subject
of this critique but had to be quoted because somehow the working head of state
is understood to be the Chief Minister and it is this office that is the
subject here. In one sentence if I have to sum up the performance of this
office it would be ‘the head office of all mafias in the state!’ To elucidate
further, this office has to be held responsible for crimes of omissions and
commissions of the grossest kind. It does nothing that is supposed to be done
and does everything that is not supposed to be done.
Ommen
Chandy, the present Chief Minister of Kerala, soon after taking over office
decided to splurge public money on web casting his office 24X7. This is what I
had written to him then:
How naive can the
people of the most literate state get? How easily can they be fooled with such
idiotic ideas like webcasting an office 24X7! As if, if the CM is going to take
bribes, he is going to take them in his office and that too knowing it will be
visible to the public! Doesn't anybody realize that if something of this nature
has to be effective it has to be lie detectors implanted under the skin of
these politicians and transmitting the signals to monitors which are webcast
24X7?
I wish the CM would
only ensure that complaints received by his grievances cell are processed
honestly. Normally it acts like a post master and send the complaints for
disposal by the delinquent officials thus cheating the complainant and refusing
to reform the system.
I have just a couple
of days back filed a 2nd appeal with the CIC, Kerala- ref RTI/cmk-sic appt-2nd
appeal-300611 dated 30 Jun 2011- where part of the complaint is that the CM's office had refused to accept the
1st appeal! It was then send through an NGO! The response in the matter of
an application pursued under the RTI Act with the office of the Minister for
Food, Civil Supplies etc also tend to indicate that these public authorities
have not even designated PIOs and FAAs in their offices.
Now here is a 4 point
program for the CM to implement:
1. Ensure that all
public servants reach their offices by 10 am and start delivering their
services to the public.
2. Ensure that all
documents received from the public are duly receipted and receipt given to the
one submitting the document. The laws are already in place for ages now. They
only need to be enforced.
3. Ensure that the
CM's complaint cell resolves the issue complained about instead of sending the
complaint to the public servant complained against for his/her disposal or
getting a useless a reply from them and closing the file.
4. Ensure that there
is an exclusive cell to monitor the functions of the quasi judicial
organisations in the state. Without exceptions these are squandering the tax
payers’ money as if there is no tomorrow with zero or near about zero output.
We had a chairman of the state human rights commission who used to hold sittings
regularly at the pilgrim centre of Guruvayur when such sittings were not held
even at all district headquarters!
(The image
of the envelope with the endorsement of the couriers is posted at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-cmksic-appt1stappeal190411envelopeunaccepted-33491489)
In a
scam-popularly known as the solar scam-the CM is a suspect in the eyes of many
citizens, besides of course the opposition parties. One allegation is that a
victim had met the CM in his office along with the accused. Naturally one would
have expected the web records to be of help in ascertaining the truth or
otherwise of this allegation. But suffice to say that the matter was taken up
in a PIL which was finally thrown out by the apex court, refusing to get the
CCTV recording investigated! The report that appeared in the Malayala Manorama
on 21 Jan 2014 is posted at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/scam-solarsc-rejects-plea-to-inspect-cctv-recordsmmpkd210114.
Now whether it is up to discerning readers to judge for themselves whether the webcasting
the CM’s office is a waste of tax payers’ money or not!
In 2013,
Ommen Chandy had received an award from the UN for his road shows known as
Public Contact Programs (PCP, for short). These road shows certainly fall in
the category of gimmicks where the CM announces a schedule for meeting the
public at each district headquarters and the District Collectors are given
responsibilities to collect the complaints from the public and route them to the
offices complained against, get there version and route those replies back to
the complainants on the day of the PCP. (The term complaint is used in a
generic sense and would include even applications for financial aid though
ultimately even these applications can be viewed as complaints because these
applicants would have wasted enough of their time, energy and resources
pursuing such applications in the normal course without success!) Those who are not satisfied with the reply
can meet the CM personally along with those who have queued up to file the
complaints directly! All so fine on paper; but there are questions to be
answered:
- When complaints can be submitted even directly on the day of the PCP why should the DC stop accepting complaints about 10 days before?
- If the intention is to dispose of most of the complaints through routine replies from the offices complained against then why should handing over these replies be delayed till the date of the PCP and that too through stalls established by the various offices?
- Why should the public who have requested for financial aid as per existing schemes wait for these PCPs to get a thousand rupees or so sanctioned by the CM on the spot?
- Why should patients be brought to these venues in ambulances and stretchers? (Please see the photos of paraplegic children, that appeared in the print media the following day, that is 12 Nov 2013, now posted for your viewing at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/cmk-pcppkd111113paraphlegic-childrenmmpkd-n-mbpkd121113!)
- What follow up action has been taken to streamline the system of delivery of government services, including dispersal of financial assistances, to the public?
- How effective is the other mode of grievance redressal through the portal Suthaaryakeralam (when translated into English it means Transparent Kerala)?
Suffice to
say that these and many more such questions continue to beg answers. Answers
which are not even provided under the RTI Act! For example, I sought the
details of the expenses incurred for organizing the event in Palakkad on 08 Dec
2011 from the office of the DC, Palakkad and got the reply that they do not
have any info as the tasks had been distributed to various other entities like
the PWD, Water Authority, Municipality etc. Important to note is that while the
DC had been made responsible for collecting and distributing the complaints not
only had there been no allotment of funds for the purpose of organising these
events but there was also no tracking of the expenses! And even when the
information was sought under the RTI Act only evasive replies were provided
when the application should have been forwarded to all those authorities for
providing the info! The second appeal in the matter is pending with the KSIC
since 20/2/2012!
The first
of these kinds of roadshows was held after Ommen Chandy had replaced AK Antony
as the Chief Minister somewhere midway during the last term of the United Democratic
Front government in 2001-06. The second series shortly after he came back to
power in 2011. For the event in Palakkad on 8/12/2011 I had submitted three
complaints: one, against the office of the DC, Palakkad itself; two, against
the consumer disputed redressal forum (CDRF), Palakakd and their appellate
authority, the state commission (KSCDRC) and the third against the Kerala State
Information Commission (KSIC). While I got some half truth replies from the
office of the DC and the CDRF there has been no response from the KSCDRC or the
KSIC! In the matter of KSIC the matter was followed up through email and even
personally. When the CM had come to
Palakkad on 30 Jun 2012 for a function held at the Lions’ School, copies of all
the three complaints and the two responses were handed over to him as well as
the MLA. But still no action has been taken and no response either! Or, may be,
there was one response. On 1 Jun 2012 the General Administration Co-ordination
Department wrote to me (their letter No 90105/Cdn5/11/GAD dated 1/6/2012)
stating that my complaint had been forwarded to the Kerala State Information
Commission (KSIC) for necessary action and that ‘being a constitutional body
State Government could not interfere in the functioning of the SIC’! It was
signed by an Under Secretary who certainly had not read the provisions of the RTI
Act. Sec 27(1) of the Act is reproduced below for ready reference:
The appropriate
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules to carry
out the provisions of this Act.
And Sec
27(2)(e) and (f) reads as follows:
In particular, and
without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may
provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—
(a)
to (d) xxx
(e) the procedure to
be adopted by the Central Information Commission or State Information
Commission, as the case may be, in deciding the appeals under sub-section (10)
of section 19; and
(f) any other matter which is required to be, or
may be, prescribed.
Now, the
third series were staged in 2013. At Palakkad it was scheduled for 26 Sep 2013
but finally conducted on 11 Nov 2013. For this, apart from submitting the
complaints to the DC one could file them online too at www.jsp.kerala.gov.in!
But when I tried to file a complaint (strictly it was just a suggestion that
the expenses incurred should be posted at this website within one month of the
event getting over at a location), the site would reject it with a message
getting displayed that the (complainant’s) address is not correct! So the
suggestion was sent to the three e mail ids (chiefminister@kerala.gov.in, cmoffice@kerala.gov.in
and cm-grccell@ kerala.gov.in) on 25 Aug 2013. On 10/9/13 I got a reply from cm-grccell@kerala.gov.in
that the complaint had been transferred to the DC Palakkad! (As if the
suggestion pertained to only DC Palakkad!) As per this pre formatted letter
(19168/CMPGRC/SK/2013/GAD dated 10/9/2013) the DC was to take necessary action
but the text ‘…and to inform you within 44 days…’, in the printed format, had
been deleted indicating that there was not only no need to conform to a time
limit but not even any need to inform me, the complainant! Copy of this letter
is available at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/comp-idiotic-reply-fm-sutharya-keralam100913.
Anyhow, the
fact remains that the suggestion has not been accepted as the details of the
expenses are nowhere to be found at www.jsp.kerala.gov.in.
Worse, again seeking the details of the expenses from the o/o the District
Collector, the response was the same- that the tasks were allotted to various
other public authorities and they should be approached for the required
information! The only info about the expenses that were provided pertained to
the office of the District Collector and the Taluk Office which totaled Rs 5,95,196/-
and were on account of refreshments provided and some stationary used!
Suffice to
say that the office of the Chief Minister, Kerala continues to be a drain on
the public exchequer with nothing in return for the public! The number of
complaints submitted to this authority and the responses and lack of responses
indicate that all those working in that office are either idiots or traitors.
If there are any exceptions they are unseen, unheard and unknown!
The
three complaints submitted to the CM for his PCP at Palakkad on 8 Dec 2011 are
posted at
The
replies received from the DC, Palakkad and President, CDRF, Palakkad are
available at
Certain
other complaints are available at
Please note: The contact details given
in various documents uploaded/reproduced could be obsolete. The current contact
information is only raviforjustice@gmail.com
