The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

RTI makes office babus sit up
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 25
For Uttarakhand, the Right to Information Act has ushered in a new era towards transparency and accountablity in public governance. It has made working at government offices a bit more disciplined and responsive with queries from the public pouring in. The credit for making the RTI an effective tool goes to the state Information Commission.

The commission during its three years of existence has been encouraging people to exercise the RTI while being stern with offenders, often penalising them. In the course of his day-to-day judgments, the Uttarakhand Information Commission has come up with decisions that set a new benchmark in governance.

It ensured that none scuttled the Act on any pretext so as to ensure that it was implemented in letter and spirit. Private educational institutions and the state Urban Cooperative Bank had been arguing that they did not fall under the ambit of the RTI Act.

The commission, however, made it clear that they were no exception.

Private industry does not fall directly under the RTI Act but information on industries can be sought from related department. For example, information on tax details of an industry can be sought from the IT department.

The local intelligence unit and Vigilance Department of had argued that they were not covered under the Act. But, the Information Commission held that except for certain sensitive security matters, they too were covered under the legislation. The two departments would have to give reasons as to why they could not provide information and would also have to specify the rule giving them such exemption.

Similarly, when information under the Act was sought from the police, the latter declined to do so on the pretext that the issue was under probe. The commission, while defining investigation and probe, said the failure to impart information on such a pretext could not be allowed.

Uttarakhand has more than 40,000 NGOs and these voluntary organisations were made to understand that they too were covered under the RTI Act. The commission held that any voluntary organisation that took financial assistance from the government fell under the purview of the Act.

In a particular case, a pregnant woman who suffered a miscarriage questioned the Dehradun Women’s Hospital about the compulsory presence of doctors during the time of a cesarian delivery.

After the matter reached the Information Commission, the Medical Council of India had to convene a meeting. It informed that the presence of an anesthesia expert and gynaecologist was compulsory at the time of a cesarian delivery. It said doctors working in Uttarakhand should be registered with the state and not outside. Government doctors were forced to go for registration after this decision.

The commission introduced the concept of deemed Public Information Officers (PIO). It entailed holding a subordinate of a PIO responsible if the former failed to provide information on time, terming the subordinate as deemed officer.

Gram pradhans, being public representatives, were made PIOs. There are at least 7,500 pradhans in Uttarakhand. The Information Commission expressed reservation on making these gram pradhans as PIOs. It said the Village Development Officer being a government officer could be made accountable. It also asked panchayats for better record-keeping.

Under the provisions of the RTI Act, an applicant living below the poverty line (BPL) need not deposit the requisite fee and is entitled to free photocopies of the replies sought from government departments.

The commission ordered an inquiry in a specific case where an official had fraudulently declared a BPL member as “dead” to claim money from Janshri Bima Yojana for BPL members.

The office of the Chief Secretary was also forced to depart with information earlier denied to an applicant. An applicant from Pauri Garhwal had sought details of the action taken on his complaints from the office of the Chief Secretary. The latter’s office denied him information on the plea that it was not covered under the Act.

But the commission directed that PIOs and appelate authority be appointed in the office of the Chief Secretary office, thereby leading to implementation of the Act. The commission also directed that working of the secretariat be carried out on the lines of the central secretariat in New Delhi for better implementation of Act.

The Uttarakhand commission decided to rank various departments in implementation of the RTI Act. This led to competition among the departments towards implementation of Act.Reaching out to the people, it launched a website. Now the commission has started updating its website, not depending on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to do so. The commission printed RTI sensitisation books in local dialects to inform the people about the rights enjoyed under the Act. Workshops and seminars were held to spread awareness among the people.

The commission came up with guidelines for appeal officers. This earned the commission much appreciation inside the state and outside. Again in an unusual decision, the commission asked for videography of the plantation undertaken by the forest department in one particular case.

The commission dealt severely with RTI offenders, even making adverse remarks against a top officer in the home department.

Exercise of the RTI Act brought to the fore some lesser known facts. Rajiv Lochan Shah, a journalist, sought clarification on banned organisations and banned literature from the home department, which referred the matter to the police. This helped reveal that there was no such list of banned literature with the police.

On matters concerning life and freedom, the commission held that information be provided in 48 hours. The commission is headed by Dr R.S. Toliya. He is trying to ensure that complaints get registered through SMS. An NGO, Participatory Research in Asia, adjudged the Uttarakhand information commission as one of the best in the country.

Religious heads hold special prayer meeting
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 25
People dressed in their Sunday best thronged the Churches to attend the special Christmas Mass. At St Francis Church, Father Bernard led the service, calling on the devotees to follow the path shown by Jesus Christ.

Their was festivity and gaiety all around with children cajoling their parents to buy them balloons. Some church goers were seen giving alms to the poor.

Yesterday, a two-minute silence was observed in memory of those killed in the Mumbai terror attacks.

At the St John Evangelist Church, the devotees heard the Bible that were read out by parish priest JP Singh. He said Christ had endured suffering for the betterment of mankind. A midnight service was held on the eve of Christmas.

The church also held a prayer meeting attended by religious heads of all religions. “We want to spread the message of communal harmony to erase social tensions,” priest J.P Singh said.

There was a rush of devotees at the Morrison Memorial Church, the CNI Church on Rajpur road and the Methodist Church on Neshvilla road.

The altars of the churches were decorated with lights and candles, with the Nativity scene finding the place of pride.

In Haridwar, people of Haridwar celebrated Christmas with fervour and gaiety. People gathered in numbers to attend the midnight mass. As the clock struck midnight, symbolising the birth of Christ, the sky lit up with fire crackers and sound of church bells reverberated the surroundings.

All three churches of Haridwar city were beautifully decorated. Two churches - Reformed Respaitarian, which is the oldest in the city and was established in 1903, and Methodist - are Protestant churches while Holy Family is a Catholic church.

Christmas trees at these churches were nicely decorated with gifts, bells and balloons. The prayers halls were lit with candles and artificial lights with Bibles placed at all desks for the worshippers.

On the Christmas festivities in the city, Christine, a tourist from New Zealand, said, “India is a beautiful country and I am amazed at the diversity of the country. It is really commendable that a Hindu city like Haridwar not only has churches but also has people celebrating Christmas enthusiastically.”

Father James Wilson of Reformed Church, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, said that Christmas gives the message of living together peacefully, to forgive the faults of others and to help each other.

Special prayers and functions were also held at various schools in the city. At Whiz Kid School, children sang carols and most of them were dressed as Santa Claus or angels. At St Mary’s School, students offered prayers and lit candles at the school church.

Medicines for dispensaries, at last
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 25
The problem of shortage of medicines since 2007-08 at the nine Dehradun corporation dispensaries will be over with by the week-end.

The dispensaries were functioning without medicines for almost a year when the budget got lapsed in 2007-08. During that period, the request for medicines by patients were turned down with doctors writing only prescription slips.

“Poor patients who come to us expect to get medicines. After all, that’s what attracts them to these dispensaries,” said M Ajmal Farooqui of the Unani dispensary.

Not only did the budget lapse for that period, but the municipal corporation also reduced the allocation from Rs 50,000 to Rs 25,000 for eight dispensaries. However, for 2008-09 the allocation has been set at Rs 50,000 for the Unani, ayurvedic and homeopathic dispensaries, while allocation for the allopathic dispensary in the vicinity of the corporation has been pegged at Rs 1 Lakh.

This year the corporation had to invite tenders twice as in the first instance, the tenders submitted by drug companies were rejected on technical grounds.

“The earnest money to be deposited was made through cheques instead of CDR,” said Dr Gurpal Singh, senior health officer, Dehradun Municipal Corpartion. The tenders were called again on November 20 for Unani, ayurvedic, homeopathic and allopathic dispensaries. On the basis of lowest rates quoted, the companies that have qualified for supplying medicines include M/S Ajanta Pharmacy for ayurvedic and Unani dispensaries, Vandana Medical Store for allopathic and Uttaranchal Medical Store for homeopathy.

Industrialists told about tax laws
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 25
The Industries Association of Uttarakhand yesterday organised an open house meeting with the senior officers of the Meerut Commissionerate.

The objective of the meeting was to educate industry about the Provision and Modalities Finance Act, 1994, as amended and solutions of the problems that are being faced by industry in discharge of their tax liabilities with regards to service tax, central excise tax and other taxes.

Chief commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (Meerut Zone), Lakhinder Singh, was the chief guest, while commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (Meerut-I), was the guest of honour.

In his speech, Lakhinder said that very purpose of holding the open house was to disseminate maximum information to the representatives of industries and trade. He also assured that the department would not harass any tax payer and if they have any problems or doubts, they can always approach him directly or through the association.

In his concluding remarks, Pankaj Gupta of the Industries Association of Uttarakhand requested the officials that since the sunset time period of Central Excise holiday was fast approaching, it would become more important to hold such interactions so that industrialists do not face problems.

Ex-servicemen demand Sainik Commission
Vishal Thakur

Dehradun, December 25
The ex-servicemen of Uttarakhand have demanded establishment of a Sainik Commission at national level that would look into the problems of the ex-servicemen across the country.

Uttarakhand’s Poorva Sanik Sangathan president, Lt. Col. Ganga Singh Rawat (retd), yesterday said a commission was very necessary towards working for speedy redressal of the problems of the ex-servicemen of the region.

He also said the Sanghatan will be celebrating it’s 15th foundation day on Dec 27. Apart from offering tributes to late NSG Commando Gajendra Singh Bisht, who laid down his life in the Mumbay attack while fighting terrorists, the Sanghatan will also be conferring the title of ‘Uttarakhand Sanik Shiromani Samman’ that will be received by Bisht’s wife Vineeta Bisht. Along with her, nine other widows of the martyrs will also be honoured.

Lt. Col. Ganga Singh Rawat (retd) also took the opportunity to express his gratitude towards the Central government for its keen inclination towards welfare of ex-servicemen. He said, “While the UPA Government at the Centre has been considerate towards our genuine concerns, but there are other demands which still need to be addressed. The most important of all is establishing a Sainik Commission. Although, a welfare department has been established by the Central government, it is incapable of fulfilling our requirements. We need a commission where our problems could be raised and heard.”

Speaking about the pay commission anomalies he said, “There are huge irregularities in the salary structure. The salary of honorary subedar and subedar major are equal, which is not judicious.”