Kerala has just witnessed
one of the worst disasters in its history in the form of floods, that is, apart
from the even worse disaster in the form of a government. The flood had ravaged
almost 50 percent of its geographical area, caused loss of about 450 lives and
material loss to the tune of a few billion rupees. It can easily be said that
almost two thirds of the lives lost has been due to the ineptitude of the
people in government. In fact the allegations and counter allegations have been
as bad as, if not worse than, the flood itself.
Ever since the Right to
Information Act was enacted, interventions using the law intended to ‘contain corruption and to hold Governments
and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed’ has helped one postulate
that our governance is a system that does not do anything it is tasked to do
and does everything it is not expected to do. Here are two interventions on
disaster management spread over 6 years.
On 26/11/2012 there was a
function in the Conference Hall of the Collectorate, Palakkad. On 02/12/2012 an
application under the RTI Act was submitted to get some details like the nature
of the function, participation, cost incurred, nature of incidents that came
under the classification of disaster, the organization of teams, the nature and
place of training, the expected response time, the equipments allotted etc. The
information provided was limited to the function being a training program on
the operation of the District Emergency Operation Centre, the participants were
the complete employees of the Collectorate (around 230 persons) and 4 employees
each from the taluks and the cost incurred was Rs 27,000/-. No information was provided on the formation
of teams, equipments and training institutions or planned response time.
Cut to post flood. Another
application under the RTI Act was filed on 30/08/2018, a good 3 weeks after the
flood waters had receded from the affected areas in this district, Palakkad.
The information sought pertained to the water level in the various dams as on
8/8/18, the date when the dams were opened for the first time, the height to
which the shutters were opened and the changes made subsequently, the authority
who issued the orders, the date and time of issuing warnings, the name and
designations of public servants assigned the various tasks during the rescue
and relief operations and those deployed in the Disaster Management Control Room
and the temporary warehouse established in the Indoor Stadium near Government
Victoria College, the details of setting up and closing of relief camps, the
aid material distributed to the relief camps, the cost incurred during the
rescue and relief operations and the source of the funds.
The one point reply from the Public Information Officer stated that the
information has not been codified and would attract the provisons of Sec 7(9)
of the RTI Act. But there was an offer to visit their office between 2 and 4.30
pm on 19/9/18! Does it look great? May be to the uninitiated in the ways of the
public servants of this ‘fully literate‘ state. Instead of the one, two or
three relevant files they would dump 10 irrelevant files also and help you to
waste your time digging out the relevant files itself. Not to forget the cost
of inspecting files! In any case the public authority is admittedly guilty
under Sec 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act which mandates every public atuhority to ‘ maintain all its records duly
catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to
information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to
be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of
resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on
different systems so that access to such records is facilitated‘.
Incidentally it has been reported in the media that about 89,000 tons of
food grains which the Chief Minister of Kerala had sought as immediate aid from
the Prime Minister and been provided promptly is yet to be collected from the
godowns of the state. And those responsible cannot also be pardoned for
creating an unwarranted controversy that these grains were not aid but were to
be charged for. And that was not the only controversy. They came with as much
ruthlessness as the flood waters themselves, whether it was requisitioning army
help or a non promised aid worth Rs 700 cr from an UAE Sheik! The reports about
political interference in relief and rehabilitation efforts would also put the
dacoits of Chambal and the Pindaries to shame!
It is also relevant to mention here that a naturopathist, Jacob
Wadakkaancherry, had been remanded by an additional sessions judge in
Thiruvananthapuram on a complaint by the Director of Health (at the instanc of
the Health Minister of the State!) that his campaign against use of the drug
Doxycycline as a preventive medicine for rat fever was against the government’s
policy. And this when the highest court of the land is still ensuring that even
those accused of plotting against the Prime Minister of the country are only
kept under house arrest!
Currently there are many cases filed against the government for extortion
also, right from the employees of Malabar and Travancore Dewaswom Boards to the
unions of government employees who have objected to the government deducting
their one month pay as contribution to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief
Fund without their consent! Meanwhile the Chief Minister who has been away in
the US of A since 01 Sep 2018 for treatment of an undisclosed ailment, has set
a new bench mark for irresponsibility by not even handing over his
responsibilities before leaving for so long to such a far off place. (Obviously,
it shows how insignificant his ailment is, doesn’t it?) And it has been
reported that the Kerala Government has not subscribed to Ayushman Bharath, the
Prime Minister’s Arogya Yojana, touted as the world’s biggest public health
scheme being inaugurated on 21 September 2018. This no doubt has deprived a
major section of the population of the state from the health care benefits
offered under the scheme. Can there be a worse example of the anti people
stance of a democratically elected government?
21 Sep 2018
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