(This is
the 4th 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.
the 3rd, 140414-RTIA-Exposing The Idiots
and Traitors amoung Public Servants-O/o The CM, Kerala is available at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2014/04/140414-rtia-exposing-idiots-and.html.
Watch out for more at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com)
Even in the
schools we were taught that the President is the Constitutional Head of the Nation
and the Executive but being a democracy it is mostly a ceremonial office and
the real power is wielded by the Prime Minister. For now let us accept it as it is. The
Governor is to the State as the President is to the Nation. But is it really
so? The President is elected by an Electoral College comprising the elected
representatives of the Parliament and the state legislatures. But the Governor
is only appointed by the President. He is more of a nominee of the ruling party
at the Centre, out to play mischief when the party ruling the state is in the
opposition at the Centre. The most recent example is the case of appointment of
the Lokayukta in Gujarat. Earlier there have been cases where these
gubernatorial office bearers have even caused elected government in states to
be dismissed by the Centre on questionable grounds. But with the enactment of
the RTI Act, the information that has been obtained, and even worse, denied,
has unequivocally established that this is an office that can easily be done
away with at considerable savings to the exchequer!
It goes
without saying that in every democratic society the citizen is the king
himself. That is why we use the terms ‘government’ (and not ruler) and ‘rule of
law’ for managing the affairs of our society. But unfortunately this has
remained a concept and only on paper. Those who have been tasked with managing
the common affairs and resources and empowered to perform those tasks have,
from the word go, assigned to themselves the role of rulers and reduced the
citizens to servility! So much so that the Chief Minister of Kerala goes around
conducting road shows in the name of Public Contact Programs where even
patients are brought in ambulances to receive the doles distributed by him from
the taxpayers’ money as if it was from his ancestral property! And why, even when
the Motor Vehicles Department put up cameras on a highway to monitor traffic,
orders were issued not to take cognizance of violations by government vehicles
including buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, notorious as
the worst transport corporation in the country, officially!
One of the
first complaints I had sent to the Governor of Kerala involved the then
minister, Naalakath Soopy. ‘Aniyara’, a serial based on investigative
journalism, telecast by Surya TV on 30 Mar 2003, had visuals which showed the
minister’s official car being used to transport his daughter to the school.
Since the perks given to ministers were unknown that by itself would not have
mattered as the subject of a complaint. But what was shown further did matter.
The team showed the official number plate of the car covered with a rexin cover
bearing another registration number! Obviously this was a crime committed
willfully and demanded appropriate action. So the complaint to the Governor!
Copies were endorsed to the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice of Kerala High
Court also! Obviously, there was no response from anyone. But after the RTI Act
came into force, an application was submitted to get copies of the file notings
of the action taken on the complaint. And what did it reveal? A complaint
addressed to the Governor against a minister had been disposed of by a clerk at
the level of a Deputy Secretary! The term used is ‘lodged’, apparently a jargon
for ‘file and forget’! The copy of the notings can be seen at page 3 of the
documents posted at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrti-fb131016fm-pio191213020114
and the particulars of the public servants who had seen the complaint and
initialed on the noting sheet can be seen at para 3 of the document at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrtifb131016fm-pio111013.
Page 2 of
the documents posted at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrti-fb131016fm-pio191213020114
are the file notings of another complaint I had sent to the Governor in Feb
2002 against strike by government employees. This mass strike, during the term
of A K Antony as Chief Minister, carried on for almost 3 months and crippled
government functions. The harassment suffered by the public during this period
is better left to one’s imagination! But this complaint also got ‘lodged’ by
the decision of the same Deputy Secretary!
Now this
what the Kerala Rajbhavan website says of the procedure followed in decision
making process including channels of supervision:
…The petitions, representations received in person or through post are
brought to the notice of the Governor and orders of the Governor on such
petition / representation are carried out. Where it is considered necessary
and desirable to further pursue the matter, a report is called for from the
concerned departments and the report so received is brought to the notice of
the Governor for further order and disposed accordingly.
III-Procedure
followed in decision making process including channels of supervision)
So much for
theory and practice! The website says what should be but experiences show what
is practiced. Fraud? Bigotry? Treason? You decide!
Cut to
2013. I got an invitation-wrongly named and wrongly addressed- on 09 Oct 2013
from the Kerala State Information Commission for a 2-day seminar at
Thiruvananthapuram on 11th and 12th Oct 2013. Immediately I wrote to the
governor. The email is reproduced below.
From: Ravindran P M
<raviforjustice@gmail.com>
To:
<keralarajbhavan@gmail.com>
Cc: CHIEF MINISTER KERALA
<chiefminister@kerala.gov.in>, Director General IMG
<dirimg2012@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 10:59:23 +0530
Subject: Seminar on RTI Act and the
Way Forward
Mr Governor,
I am in receipt of an invitation for
the above seminar. As is wont to happen with KSIC neither the name or the
address is correct. Thanks to the good doctor heading Palakkad Munnot I got it
allright.
I certainly won't attend because I
don't have time to waste nor do I want to feel guilty of having been party to
waste of tax payers' money.
And now even though my experiences
with complaining about the treason of the information commissioners to your
predecessors and the current and previous CMs have taught me that even this
mail could be a waste of my precious time, it just that flicker of hope, that
in case the situation has changed a wee bit after the change of incumbent in
the highest office of the State, that is helping me to bother myself.
I am attaching herewith certain
suggestions given to the 1st CIC on 26 Jan 2007! My experience tells me that
things have only gone worse thereafter. But since you are going to inaugurate
the seminar on 11 Oct you would do well to study these suggestions, evaluate
the performance of the KSIC independently and make an honest address during the
function instead of dishing out the usual inanities. Not only me but quite as
few knowledgeable people in the matter of RTI will be watching you on TV and
hope you will be able to give us some hope!
Just for your info some statistics
(as available at the web site of the Commission on 07 Oct 2013) : No of cases
disposed off by the various ICs during 2013 are as follows :
Siby Mathew: 22; Gunavardhan : 21;
Sony Thegamam: 19; Sasi Kumar: 12; Kurias Kumbalangi: 17; Total: 91
This is less than what an IC in the
Central Info Commn disposes per day!
regards and best wishes,
P M Ravindran
(The
suggestions given to the CIC, KSIC on 26 Jan 2007, in writing, in person,
during a seminar on RTI at the Rotary Club, Ottappalam is now posted at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-suggestions-to-the-cickerala260107)
Suffice to
say that this important feedback was futile as the only thing reported in the
media about the inauguration of this function was that the Governor had stated
that the misuse of this Act has to be viewed seriously! So the next feedback
was mailed thus:
from: Ravindran P M <raviforjustice@gmail.com>
to:
keralarajbhavan@gmail.com
cc:
Director General IMG <dirimg2012@gmail.com>, CHIEF MINISTER KERALA
<chiefminister@kerala.gov.in>
date: Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 1:01 PM
subject: Fwd: Seminar on RTI Act and the Way Forward
Mr Governor,
I could not view the TV yesterday
but I eagerly looked up Malayalam's two premier dailies to see what they had
reported about the two day extravaganza of the KSIC whcih got inaugurated by
you at Kanakakunnu Palace yesterday. I was glad to see that one of them had
totally ignored it, both in their print and online editions. And what was
reported by the other exposed your ignorance as nothing else could! The one
sentence report about your inaugural address- about the threat of misuse- can
be seen only as evidence of your ignorance and may be your indifference to the
responsibilities of your office. As the law stands the only people who can
misuse this only pro-democracy, citizen-friendly law are the information
commissioners and almost 100 pc of their orders are documentary evidences of
such misuse. The law mandates that penalty shall be imposed for delays and you
only need to look at those orders where the PIOs have been directed to provide
information and have been spared the penalty to infer what could have gone
wrong- of information commissioner having taken bribe from the PIO and spared
him from ignominy and adverse records in his career documents! Of course these
crimes of the ICs are punishable under Sec 219 of the IPC but then who will go
to the court when they can't even give a fair decision in as simple a matter as
the date of birth case of a former Chief of Army Staff ?
I an only pray God save my country!
And also curse those who have been responsible for bringing this country to
this sordid pass!
Yours truly,
P M Ravindran
And on 16th
Oct 2014 I send the feedback along with an application under the RTI Act. These
documents are at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrtifb131016appln.
The reply I
got from the PIO initially is at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrtifb131016fm-pio111013,
the response of the FAA to my 1st appeal
is at http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrtifb131016fm-faa191213020114
and the letter I got from the PIO in compliance with the order of the FAA is at
http://www.slideshare.net/raviforjustice/rti-kergovrti-fb131016fm-pio191213020114.
Apart from
the failure of the public servants in Rajbhavan in taking prompt action on the
feedback given what the responses to the application and 1st appeal under the
RTI Act has revealed is that this office of the 1st public servant in the State
is a white elephant, only burdening the taxpayers. Even the simple requirement
of providing copies of the file notings on action taken on the feedback, as it
existed on the date of providing the info by the PIO-11/11/2013 and not 11/10/2013
as shown in the initial reply by the PIO- were not provided and even the 1st
Appellate Authority, a member of the disastrous IAS cadre, had failed to direct
the PIO to provide the same!
Well, as
part of disclosures under Sec4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, the website of the Kerala
Rajbhavan has provided some information. As per this info the Secretariat of
the Governor has 71 public servants to help the Governor discharge his official
duties. And the budget for the Secretariat alone is, rather was (because the
details available as on 8/5/2014 is that of the 2011-12 budget!) Rs 273.28
lakhs! (The household staff number 77 and the budget was 240.9 lakhs. Apart
from this there is the Rajbhavan dispensary with 6 personnel working on a
budget of Rs 48.24 lakhs! And well, the Rajbhavan is situated on 12.3 hectares
of prime space in the State capital!) Now, given the expose of the shoddy or
non-performance of this public authority in this blog, is there any
justification for wasting the tax payers’ money on it?
Please note: The contact details given
in various documents uploaded/reproduced could be obsolete. The current contact
information is only raviforjustice@gmail.com
