Barinder Saluja, Chandigarh,April 13 : The office bearers of RTI Activists Federation of Punjab, in their emergency meeting held at Press Club, Chandigarh today, passed a resolution condemning Harpal Kaur , District Education Officer (Elementary) Ludhiana for filing a false and frivolous FIR against RTI Activist and Social Studies Master (Gursharan Singh) at Government High School, Bhadla (near-Khanna) as a counter-blast against his activities in exposing corruption at various levels in the District.
Office bearers condemned the gross mis-use of powers by Harpal Kaur, as DEO (Elementary), Ludhiana (as stated by Adv. HC Arora) in misusing the provisions of “Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act” and alleging in the FIR that Gursharan Singh had a telephonic conversation with some Manjit Singh, during which “Castiest words against Harpal Kaur” have been used. The modus operandi adopted by Harpal Kaur is that (i) firstly the mobile phone set of Gursharan Singh was got stolen by some body close to her; (ii) then the conversation between Gursharan Singh and Manjit Singh, another teacher , as recorded in the said mobile set, was used for filing FIR against both of them.Gursharan Singh has clarified to H.C. Arora, State President of RTI Activists Federation Punjab, over telephone today that “Not a single word in the recorded conversation has been uttered by him using any castiest word against any body, much less against Harpal Kaur”
said Gursharan Singh, as told by H.C.Arora
The RTI Activists Federation, therefore, demands from the Punjab Government/Home Secretary to intervene into this matter, and direct the DEO (Elementary) Ludhiana to withdraw the FIR, and also issue instructions to all authorities in Punjab not to file such FIRs without permission from the Chief Secretary, Punjab.
They Also Released a Book which contains 100 Strange and Shocking Orders passed by the State Information Commission, Punjab. The object of publishing this book is said H C Arora, that “We have brought out this booklet to enable you to understand one of the problems faced by the RTI Activists of Punjab in implementing their resolve to expose corruption through the RTI Act.”
He also Added that “The State CIC of Punjab has been openly clamoring for powers under Contempt of Courts Act; For what purpose? It appears the sole motive is to stifle the voice of RTI Activists. The position in other State Information Commissions may be totally different from Punjab; Many Information Commissioners in Punjab are virtually enjoying paid holidays on most of the working days, as they don’t have sufficient work to keep them busy. The Information Commissioners get same salary as is paid to Hon’ble Judges of the High Courts; However, they donot have to burn mid-night oil at their residence for going through the paper books of cases. The Country expects much better orders from the Information Commissioners. However, there have been good orders also occasionally coming from many of them; One such good order is published at serial No. 2 in this booklet; They deserve our compliments. By and large, however, the position appears to be far from satisfactory in the Punjab State Information Commission. At the same time, we are of the considered view that any number of good orders cannot mitigates the pain of those who have suffered hundreds of strange and shocking orders. We, therefore, reiterate our conviction and appeal to all of you to exert your influence at your respective places so that at least 50% of the Information Commissioners should be selected from amongst Retired Judges and prominent RTI Experts/ activists of unimpeachable integrity; only such persons can carry the RTI movement forward in consonance with the letter and spirit of the RTI Act.”
OUR DEMAND AND NECESSITY OF LAUNCHING A MASS MOVEMENT BY RTI ACTIVISTS IN PUNJAB
(1) DEMAND:
Atleast 50% of the Information Commissioners should be selected from amongst Retired Judges and prominent RTI Experts/ activists of unimpeachable integrity; Only such persons can carry the RTI movement forward in consonance with the letter and spirit of the RTI Act.”
Section 12 and 15 of the RTI Act, 2005 lay down that “The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management,
journalism, mass media or administration and governance.”
As there are 10 posts of State Information Commissioners, and one post of State Chief Information Commissioner in Punjab, therefore, we demand that 5 posts of Information Commissioners be filled up from amongst retired Judges and RTI Activists, and the State CIC should only be a retired Judge (i.e., the persons of eminence with back ground of law and social service).
At present, 4 posts of Information Commissioners are vacant, and two posts are to fall vacant on 16.5.2011. We, therefore, demand that 5 out of these 6 vacant posts be filled up from amongst retired Judges and prominent RTI Activists of unimpeachable integrity.
(2) ACTIONS SO FAR TAKEN BY THE RTI ACTIVISTS FEDERATION.
During last one month, more than 1000 memorandums have been sent by RTI Activists from all over Punjab to Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab (S. Sukhbir Singh Badal) through e-mail and fax. All those memorandums have been “just forwarded” by the office of Deputy C.M. to the Information & Technology Department for necessary action. Thus, in a way, more than 1000 memorandums have been “thrown into dust-bins” by the Punjab Government.
(3) NOW, THEREFORE, WE HAVE NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE EXCEPT LAUNCHING A POWERFUL MASS MOVEMENT IN SUPPORT OF OUR SOLITARY DEMAND AS ABOVE.
This is the copy of a complaint sent to various authorities, including CIC (Delhi):
Subject : Corruption in Punjab State Information Commission
‘Forget RTI, pay bribe’: this appears to be the message from Punjab State Information Commission that has become a source of harassment to complainants and protection to corrupt officers and RTI violators.
The case titled ‘ Tejinder Singh v. PIO, Education Secretary Punjab ‘ (CC no. 224/2011) was heard on 11.03.2011 in the court of Sh. P.K. Verma, Information Commissioner. The PIO had not provided me information for six months and confessed his guilt before court. He had wrongly transferred the application to DPI (SE) that too after more than a month. Even on 11.03.2011 he made lame excuses like non availability of record in the office and misled the Commission. However the IC Sh. P.K. Verma, who had apparently been bribed by the respondent, took the matter very leniently and simply directed the respondent to provide information in a week without imposing a penalty.
It is also pertinent to mention here that my application was also kept pending for about 3 months without issuing any notice. Some purely technical objections were made on the application but no information was sent to me about the same. Only when I personally visited the office to inquire about my case that the information regarding objections was given. Clearly some other officials of the Commission were hand-in-glove with corrupt officers.
Then I received a letter from the respondent (Memo No. 7/81/03-3s2/1228)dated 15.03.2011 that reached me on 17.03.2011, inviting me to visit the office next week on any working day and collect the information.
On 22.03.2011, I visited the respondent’s office. Though I was allowed to inspect the case file, however I was not provided certified copies of the required documents on the pretext that the Superintendent was on leave. Only photo copy of one document i.e. order by Education Secretary dated 18.04.2011 was provided. I was told by the dealing hand Sh. Gurdev Singh to come on 24.03.2011 to get the certified copies of the required documents (which were flagged). However when I reached the office at 11.15 a.m. on 24.03.2011 (with proof), Sh.Gurdev Singh was not available. The concerned Superintendent Sh. Om Prakash was said to be on leave. Sh. Harnek Singh, another Superintendent, who was said to be holding the charge and some other staff told me to wait for Sh. Gurdev Singh who was said to have gone to attend some court. I waited till lunch time and also called Sh. Gurdev Singh on his mobile phone but none appeared and the cell phone was switched off. I sent him SMS but there was no response. The other staff was unable to trace the file.All this was done to deliberately harass me.
In fact, as it is clear from the order by Education Secretary dated 18.04.2007, the DPI(SE) was guilty of disobeying Govt’s orders dated 07.03.2007.The record appears to have been tampered as many pages of the file are torn. Information regarding the action taken against DPI(SE) and DEO (Fatehgarh Sahib) for violating rules, is missing, though several warnings have been given to them.This speaks volumes of the corruption in Education Department. The Govt could not make its officers comply with its orders in four years and now has been misleading the Commission and the judicial court.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier the DPI(SE) had provided misleading information in a case before the Commission to the petitioner concealing orders passed by the Education Secretary dated
18.04.2007.The non-compliance of orders by the respondent was brought to the notice of Commission through email dated 24.03.2011 and letter dated 28.03.2011. (Copy of email given below).Obviously my letter (through courier, that takes only one day) and email (with proof) reached well in advance to the Commissions office. However on 01/04.2011, the Commission disposed of as the respondent stated that the complainant has been supplied the required information.It is strange that the Commission totally ignored my email and letter and considered the statement given by respondent as true without even asking for any proof of supplying the information.Unfortunately the corrupt Information Commissioner Sh. P.K. Verma, not only ignored the delay of six months without imposing penalty but also accepted respondent’s statement, without any documentary proofs and deliberately neglected my pleas, to favour the respondent.
It is therefore respectfully prayed that appropriate action against the corrupt officers of the Punjab State Information Commission may kindly be taken for making a total mockery of RTI Act. I will have
NO FAITH in the Punjab State Information Commission or any internal inquiry conducted by the Commission itself.
Note: I have already brought to the notice of higher authorities how various Information Commissions; including the CIC have been making a fun of RTI Act. The CIC did not hear my complaint of RTI violation by a court in two years and hushed up the same without any intimation to me. It is ironical that the Indian media is still fooling the public by propagating RTI as a tool against corruption. I have decided to expose
the real face of Information Commissions as well as the pitiable condition of RTI Act through international media and internet.
i want 100 decisions book in pdf. pls send it to me immediately.
The quality of the judgement and delivery of the information is very precarious at The State Information Commission Punjab. It needs to be drastically improved. RTI Activist Federation Punjab is doing a yeoman’s job in this direction. Congratulation.