Information on Sheila Dikshit:The CIC has directed the Delhi government to make public a 2008 Lokayukta order that indicted former chief minister Sheila Dikshit on charges of misuse of public funds. Lokayukta Manmohan Sarin’s order had charged Dikshit with using funds for publicity and printing photos on loan forms for Delhi Swarojgar Yojna. Sarin had sought then President Pratibha Patil’ permission to recover Rs. 11 crore for the misuse of funds, which was rejected. The CIC order came after activist S C Agarwal sought information on the issue.
Robert Vadra’s land deal in Haryana:
Gurgaon resident Dharamvir Yadav filed an RTI application in 2013, which revealed that separate building plans for both plots in May field Garden (N29 owned by Vadra and N30 by a private company) were approved in November 2010. But work on a single structure–the guesthouse– straddling both plots commenced in 2011. Yadav claims the building was completed by March 2014. After this, Satpal Thakran, another resident of the same township, filed an RT I query in May this year seeking more details on the plots, but these got stonewalled by authorities who cited Vadra’s request not to disclose details. The TO I is now in possession of correspondence between the Haryana Urban Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and District Town Planner over Change of Land Use permissions and occupation certificates, which show how rules were bent at every stage.
The Times of India had reported on how RT I pleas to uncover details of a plot registered in the name of Vadra were stonewalled. ToI now has documents which prove that not only was a single structure built on two plots of land ( one owned by Vadra, the other private company), but also that a change of land permission from residential to commercial was sought only after the building was completed, both of which are in gross violation of the law.
Maharashtra State Police Transfer rules:
Under the state police transfer rules, officers cannot be transferred before they complete two years in one post unless under exceptional circumstances. But an RT I query shows that 147 of the 150 transfers this year, from January to September, were under “exceptional” circumstances. This was revealed following a query filed under RTI Act by former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who asked for information on the number of deputy superintendents of police and officers above being transferred before their tenure was over this year. The data provided showed that only three out of 150 transfers were according to the law.
The transfers have raised questions about political interference in state policing with senior officers often found queuing up at politicians’ offices to choose postings. Some of the “exceptional reasons” cited are health problems and the distance between home and work place.
The data provided by the state police headquarters under RTI Act shows that 33 officers were transferred in February and 91 in June, just two months after the Parliament elections. On 23rd August, more officers were shifted, and all fell under the “exceptional” category.
Papers on First chief CIC’s resignation:
The Central Information Commission, entrusted with monitoring of record-keeping in government bodies, has lost the records relating to the resignation of the first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah who headed the institution for nearly five years. In an RTI response, the transparency panel said the lost files related to Habibullah’s resignation are not readily traceable, raising questions about record-keeping in the CIC. “The concerned file containing the communication relating to then Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah regarding his resignation are not readily traceable though efforts have been made. The information will be provided as an when available,” Sushil Kumar, Deputy Secretary at the CIC, said in response to RTI application filed by Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra. Batra told PTI that around 20th October, 2009 Habibullah had resigned to join as Chief Information Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ajit Pawar makes RTI application:
NCP leader Ajit Pawar made use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to scrutinise a large number of files that former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had cleared in just 15 days.
Pawar, who was Chavan’s deputy in the Congress-NCP government, said that he had already filed RTI queries over the files from the urban development department. “Files stuck for a long time were suddenly cleared in the past 15 days. What suddenly happened?” he said. “As an ordinary citizen, I have sought information about the decisions taken in the urban development department.” [Source – news items published in The Times of India]
