Sangarsh RTI Movement congratulates Arvind Kejriwal

Jammu, 28/Dec/2013: Sangarsh RTI Movement in JK, an organization of RTI activists has congratulated Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for being elected as Chief Minister of Delhi State. Balvinder Singh, convener of the organization in his congratulatory message to Delhi CM said that Aam Aadmi Party has proved that even an ordinary but honest person can make the difference with sincere and constant effort. This is historic day for Indian democracy and it would obviously usher a new era of revolution in the country, the tradition political parties now must see the writing on the wall and listen the voice of common man. Balvinder also appreciated the decision of kejriwal where he has negated  the VIP culture by rejecting ‘Z’ Category security and Chief Ministerial Bungalow . Whereas RTI activist Raman Sharma who is founder of the Sangarsh RTI group also offered greetings to the team Kejriwal. Raman said Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia have played a very important role in spreading awareness about Right to Information Law, sharing  personal experiences Raman informed that whenever they (Sangarsh RTI members) asked for any help with regard to legal and technical aspect of the RTI act, these people have sincerely and without any delay offered their guidance  and cooperation.

-------------

published in Kashmir Times, Jammu Bulletein, Glimpse of Future

Jammu Bulletin

Glimpse of Future

RTI query guides Omar to reduce his chopper dependence

12/21/2013 1:04:00 AM

JAMMU: RTI being potent tool to fight corruption and achieve a certain level of transparency and a resultant accountability to some degree, its impact can be gauged from the fact that the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has reduced his chopper dependence appreciably; thereby reducing the burden on the state exchequer and resultantly having saved expenditure on this account to the tune of 40 per cent, the Jammu and Kashmir Government's Civil Aviation Department (CAD) has revealed in a RTI query filled by Balvinder Singh convener Sangarsh RTI Movenment. This after seeking guidance from a 2011 RTI query media exposé and the resultant outrage, it seems the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has learnt his lessons well and succeed in taking a positive measure. Pertinently, when Omar Abdullah, while addressing the valedictory session of the annual convention of CIC in Delhi in the month of September this year shared this positive measure which, according to him, he took as a curative step towards reducing burden on the states' public exchequer on account of spending on chopper sorties (which had even invited public outrage) and simultaneously talked about the positive role of RTI regimen in disciplining public figures, Balvinder Singh RTI activist from the State who was also present in the said meeting, after coming to Jammu, filed another RTI application to ascertain the veracity of Omar's claims and to know about the latest position, the reply provided reduction of 40 per cent expenditure on chopper rides. In order to obtain perfect comparative, I asked for the information for the same specific period which he had obtained last time. This Time RTI reply revealed the reduction of 40% expenditure on chopper's ride. This time, the total expenditure during the period between March 15, 2012 to September15, 2013 comes to around Rs 4.35 crore. Whereas the total expenditure during the corresponding period between March 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010 was to the tune of Rs. 7.45 crore. The reply also revealed that Hon'ble CM stoped claiming TA/DA after the filling of Mr Singh's First RTI application in the year 2011, where previous RTI reply showed Him Taking Rs. 1.63 lacks as TA/DA expenses, this clearly elucidating the impact of RTI instrument on the person of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Whereas the amount spent on fuel by Civil Aviation Department during the period between March15, 2012 to September 15, 2013 for purchase of fuel for travel of Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir amounts to Rs. 67.81 lacks. The amount spent on salaries of the pilots has also come down to around Rs. 1.53 crore from 2.20 crore. Amount spent on repair and maintenance too has come down appreciably to Rs. 96 lacks from whooping 3.84 crore during last corresponding period of my query. ..................... published in early times, jknewspointm rising kashmir, economic times, hindustan times and other local and national dailies, http://journeyline.in/newsdet.aspx?q=41330

Why Should I Address them as Honourables...?

RAMAN SHARMA

Morally ‘Respect’ cannot be claimed by anyone as a matter of right  but it is to be earned by a person him/herself with the  conduct, attitude, approach but unfortunately here in India  people with the fear of law compelled to demonstrate respect  for  certain Individuals and Institutions.  In India besides Judiciary the prefix adjective ‘Honourable’ is often used to address the people occupying political posts like ministers, Parliamentarians and State legislature like Honourable Minister/M.P/MLA/MLC. And if somehow anyone ignorantly forgets to prefix this adjective to address them , certainly heaven falls for these ‘Honourables’ and they make it a prestige issue and may also make the person to bow on his knees, they may bring breach of privilege motion.  

Though there are obviously some upright and honest politicians in our country irrespective of political affiliation including ministers and legislatures but one question obviously comes to our mind whenever we find this adjective before the name and designation of those corrupt and criminal politicians against whom there are serious allegations and criminal charges. Before scripting  this piece of writing the writer have carefully gone through the dictionary meaning of ‘HONOURABLE’ and the synonyms of this word are “ the honest, moral, ethical, principled, righteous, right-minded, full of integrity; decent, respected, respectable, venerable, virtuous, good, upstanding, upright, worthy, noble, high-principled, fair, just, truthful, trustworthy, trusty, law-abiding, incorruptible, reliable, reputable, dependable, illustrious, distinguished, eminent, great, admirable, glorious, prestigious, noble, notable, creditable, renowned and  esteemed etc. But to be honest with self, today the political class of the country must introspect and then decide that should the today’s political people deserve to be called as honourable and how many of our parliamentarians and state legislatures are honest and high-principled and how many of them are full of integrity and incorruptible, the reply would obviously not reveal and depict a healthy scenario of Indian political system.  It is perhaps official compulsion and a matter of diplomatic courtesy that in the official communications whether written or verbal these politicians are addressed as ‘Honourables’. Though India have switched from monarchy to republic and democratic set up but the mindset of some of our leaders have not changes and still they want to have all the privileges and the legal immunities so that they can be appeared as superior over the rest of the citizenry. It is a very serious issue that here in our country we have two sets of law one for the common masses and the other for the so called honourables, for example the union government and its political functionaries are time and again orchestrating against providing subsidies to the people and acting on this firstly they allowed the oil companies to decide the petrol charges and then on domestic LPG cylinders they put a cap of 9 cylinders in a year.

On the rising inflation the political class have the readymade reply that it is international phenomenon but this is just to befool the people and this argument by our so called honourable holds only for common people but for themselves the rising inflation is not an issue which is evident from the fact that the parliament canteen is immune from rising inflation and since year 2000 there are only three revisions of their rate list and the last revisions was done some 3 years back and since 2010 no price hike there in the canteen for our so called honourables. Can anyone amongst these honourable reply that why no rising inflation in your canteen since 2010 whereas on the other side in these three years the princes of all commodities have increased at least 50-60 %. Moreover the price of lavish items served in this canteen is unbelievable and to run this canteen for over around 800 MP’s a daily subsidy of Rs. 333333 is given.  For a common man there are number of reason to object to use the prefix ‘honourable ’  for example take the case of Cola drinks ban, we all know that in year 2003 there were reports by a credible NGO that all major brand cola drinks hold high level pesticides in it, though after some time the matter was buried under the carpet but even today all cola drinks with their names are strictly banned in the parliament canteen but these cola drinks are openly sold out in hospitals (even in maternity hospitals), in schools.  In camera string operations  (14^th Lok  Sabha) we have seen how does these honourables sold themselves even to raise questions in the parliament, recently also we have seen some honourables allegedly demanding money to give recommendation letters to some fictious companies. We have seen our honourables involved in criminal cases like forgery, rape extortion, murder and corruption is the most common blame. As a human being my conscious do not allow me to compromise and I find it quite difficult to address them  as ‘Honourables’, though I have all the respect for the institution of Parliament and the constitution of the county. About Author: Raman Sharma is a RTI activist and can be reached at jkrtiact@gmail.com, 9796811012

-------

 published in state times on 21/dec/2013, Kashmir Times on 11/Jan/2014

http://www.statetimes.in/news/address-honourables/
http://www.kashmirtimes.in/newsdet.aspx?q=27530

SR College organizes RTI Program for KAS Aspirants’

SR College organizes RTI Program for KAS Aspirants’

Jammu, 17/Dec/2013: Today, a one Day awareness cum training workshop on Right to Information Awareness program exclusively for KAS aspirants is being organized by S.R College of Competitions, Gandhi Nagar Jammu. In the program over a 50 candidates including successful/ pass out of KAS Preliminary 2013 exam and   those student who are preparing for the 2014 competitive exams attended the workshop. The program started with an introductory note by Parveen Sharma, director of the college. While speaking on the occasion, Parveen asked the students to understand this act as being citizen and also in advance so that after being in government service they can provide information to the citizenry without any hurdle. RTI activist, Raman Sharma who was the special invitee on the occasion also shared his personal experiences with regard to the Right to Information Act and gave section wise detail of the act.  He informed the participants that Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act 2009 is a unique piece of legislation and it is even applicable to the Central government departments situated in the territorial jurisdiction of the state of Jammu and Kashmir State. He also underlined the importance of section 4 (Pro-active disclosure) of the act which is also termed as soul of the RTI Act. He also urged the participant to further spread the awareness about this transparency law  to people belonging to underprivileged class of the society so that they can also feel essence of real democracy. During interactive session, Raman also replied various queries of the participant with regard to state RTI Act and Central RTI law. 

-------------------

pUBLISHED IN JK NEWSPOINT, DAILY UDAAN, Kashmir Times, Daily Excelsior, State Times and others..

http://www.jknewspoint.com/newsdet.aspx?q=27780

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/sr-college-organizes-rti-program-for-kas-aspirants/

http://www.statetimes.in/news/sr-college-organises-rti-programme-kas-aspirants/

Raman Sharma in conversation with KAS aspirants of SR College of Competetions, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.

16 years On, SHRC Fails to Establish Its Offices in Rajouri, Doda

After 16 Years of Enactment of the Law

SHRC Fails to Establish Its Offices in Rajouri, Doda

Violation of State Human   Rights Act

JAMMU, 16/Dec/2013: The sincerity of the State government with regard to Human Rights issues  could be well guessed  from the fact that despite 16 years after the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Human Protection of Human Rights Act 1997, two sub- offices of the State Human Rights Commission are yet to be establish and there is no immediate proposal to establish them in any near future.

The fact came after an RTI application where the Public Information Officer of the Commission in its reply has apprised the applicant, RTI activist Raman Sharma that the Commission has time and again agitated the issue regarding establishment at Doda and Rajouri.

Earlier in his RTI application dated 15/Nov/2013 , activist Raman Sharma has asked information on 7 points where he has asked the commission stating “ As per section 3(5) of The Jammu And Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, I997, there should  be sub-offices of the commission at Jammu, Doda and Rajouri . Kindly intimate the postal address of the sub-offices the JKSHRC at Rajouri and Doda and If there is no sub-office of the JKSHRC at Doda and Rajouri , what steps have been taken by the commission in this regard to establish sub-offices at these two places and also provide copy of all the communication letters sent by the JKSHRC to the government for establishing these sub-offices at Doda and Rajouri ”. While replying to the query of the applicant, the commission has also tried to water down its failure to establish its  sub-offices in Rajouri and Doda districts. The commission in its reply has stated that the commission has established its sub-office near New Rehari, Jammu and the sub-offices at Rajouri and Doda are yet to be established however establishment of sub-offices at Jammu has facilitated the complainants of far flung areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua and Udhampur. The commission also failed to provide copy of any document to substantiate  the fact that it had ever requested the government to establish its sub-offices.  On the question of sanctioned and presented posted staff at the SHRC, it has been admitted by the commission that there are 15 vacancies and the total sanctioned strength of the staff members is 88 posts including Police Investigation wing. The commission has so far received 6803 cases since its inception and has decided/disposed 5159 cases till 30/Nov/2013.  Expressing his  resentment for not establishing sub-offices even after 16 years of the enactment of the law,  information seeker Raman Sharma called it a criminal negligence and violation of section 3(5) of the State Human Right Act. He demanded immediate functioning of the sub-offices at far flung areas so that every effected citizen can come forward and report all issued related to Human Rights Violations.

----------------
Published in Kashmir Observer, Rising Kashmir, Kashmir Life, State Times, JK News Point and others on 17/Dec/2013

http://www.kashmirlife.net/16-years-shrc-fails-establish-offices-rajouri-doda/
http://kashmirobserver.net/news/top-news/16-years-shrc-fails-establish-offices-rajouri-doda
http://www.risingkashmir.com/16-yrs-on-shrc-fails-to-establish-offices-in-rajouri-doda/

RTI REPLY FROM SHRC

SIC imposes Rs 25,000 Penalty on an Executive Engineer on Activist’s Complaint

Wilful Delay in Providing RTI Reply

SIC imposes Rs 25,000 Penalty on an Executive Engineer on Activist’s Complaint

JAMMU, 15/Dec/2013:  Going tough against  the delinquent officers for defying Right to Information Act, in a significant  judgement the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission (SIC) has imposed a maximum penalty of Rs. 25,000 on a senior officer. Commission has imposed penalty on an Executive Engineer  V.K. Bhagat, the then Public Information Officer and  Technical Officer to Chief Engineer of P.H.E, Jammu who is  presently posted as  Executive Engineer, Power Development Corporation office. As Per order the officer has been penalised for  wilful delay of information to an information-seeker under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2009.

The Penalty proceedings are initiated against the officer on the complaint (u/s 15 J & K RTI Act 2009) of  RTI activist Raman Sharma who in his complaint alleged that he had not received information from PIO even after long elapse of due time period. Earlier Raman had sought details of RTI applications received by PHE department, list of their disposal and pending, but the PIO failed to provide the information to the complainant Raman Sharma and even ceased his right to file appeal before the 1^st appellate authority thus compelled the applicant to file the complaint before the J & K State Information Commission. The commission during the course of hearing the petition had sought reply from PIO of the delay and in letter no PHE/PS/1180, the PIO failed to substantiate the grounds for delay in providing information to the applicant. Now in its decision No SIC-J-C-93/2012/384, S.K Sharma, State Information Commissioner observed "The delay caused by the PIO in furnishing the information to the information seeker is unreasonable and without any sufficient cause and as such he deserves to be penalized u/s 17 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009. The penalty to be imposed on the PIO is calculated as (ii) Date of application u/s 6 of the J&K RTI Act 2009 for seeking information is 17.11.2011. (ii) due date of passing order by PIO u/s 7 is 16.12.2011 (ii) Information provided to the information seeker on 23.7.2012 (iii) Delay in furnishing the information (No of days) 215 (V) Penalty to be imposed for each day is Rs 250/- 215 days X Rs 250 and amount goes to Rs 53,750. The total amount of such penalty shall not exceed Rs 25000 u/s 17 clause(1) under J&K RTI Act, 2009. Therefore an amount of Rs 25,000 is imposed as penalty."The Commission further ordered as "the Drawing and Disbursing Officer in the office of Chief Engineer, P.H.E, Jammu will ensure deduction of Rs 25,000 from the salary of V.K. Bhagat the then PIO/Technical Officer to the Chief Engineer P.H.E Jammu at present Executive Engineer, P.D.C Office, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu in five equal instalments and remit it to the Government Account with an intimation to this Commission. In case of any default committed by the DDO in this regard, he, will be personally liable for making the payment towards the Government Account. The order has to be complied within 15 days from the date of receipt of the order."

----------------------------

Published in Kashmir Times, Early Times, State Times, Greater Kashmir, Tribune, JK Newspoint and other dailies on 16/Dec/2013.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Dec/16/sic-imposes-rs-25-000-penalty-on-xen-41.asp

http://www.jknewspoint.com/newsdet.aspx?q=27596

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131216/j&k.htm#17

http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=26539

Despite Moratorium JKPCC Purchased three SUVs, drained Rs. 75 Lac on Fuel

 CM’s Directive Falls on Deaf Ear

Despite Moratorium  JKPCC  Purchased three SUVs, drained Rs. 75 Lac on Fuel  

Jammu, 13/Dec/2013: Ignoring the directives of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation, JKPCC, State owned construction unit has not only purchased three luxurious Sport Utility Vehicles, SUVs  Renault Duster but also drained and burnt fuel worth Rs. 75,42804 during the year 2012-13. The corporation has also flouted the state transport policy regarding issuance of vehicles to the government functionaries.

In response to an RTI query the JKPCC has apprised the applicant and RTI Activist Mohammad Yasin Mir that in the month of September 2013 the corporation had possessed three SUVs out of which one Renault Duster vehicle bearing temporary number AN-3819 stands attached with Chairman JKPCC, in charge minister R & B, another SUV bearing no. AN 3818 is attached with commissioner secretary PWD and the third bearing no. AN-3820 is yet to be deployed with someone. The reply by the JKPCC has also revealed that it has fleet of 25 Vehicles, including 19 Cars and 6 commercial vehicles like Trucks and Tippers.   Though despite having its own fleet of vehicles, the corporation has also hired 6 vehicles from the private parties without inviting tenders in violation of rules and  have made payment of Rs. 488000.  While sharing this information with the media, RTI activist Raman Sharma said that Prima facially it is evident that the state owned corporation has purchased three luxurious vehicles in violation of the orders of the honourable Chief Minister Omar Abdullah where in year 2010 while chairing  85th meeting of the Board of Directors the C.M  had directed JKPCC for putting a moratorium on purchase of high cost vehicles for next five years (till 2015 ). Though the CM has directed that the vehicles required for field workers should be given preference over the high cost luxury ones and the proposal for purchase of vehicles should be got approved not only by the Chairman (Minister in-charge) of JKPCC but also by the Chief Minister. Raman also referred an order of the transport department bearing no. TR-33 SMG/2012 dated 03/06/2013 where is it being ordered that only Cabinet Ministers/Minister of State or other dignitaries having the status of the rank of a minister can use (SUV) Tata Safari Type Vehicles . He questioned the motive of the JKPCC to purchase three Renault Dusters despite the moratorium out of which one is yet to be deployed with someone which shows that there was not any emergency for the department to purchase these vehicles. In the RTI reply it is also revealed that flouting the transport department’s guidelines even the private secretary of the   Chairman is in possession of an Ambassador Car JK02G-3418 along with a permanent driver for which also the fuel charges are borne by the corporation. An amount of Rs. 364796 as fuel charges is also borne by the corporation for its vehicles attached with the Civil Secretariat that too without any formal request from any quarter.  A formal complaint to the Chief Minister has been made by activist Raman Sharma (via CM Grievance Cell no 45049) seeking a Vigilance Probe in the matter for  fixing responsibility on the officers who ignored the directives of the chief minister and for prohibiting the corporation to further misuse the funds of the corporation. 

Published in Early Times, Kashmir Times, State Times, Rising Kashmir, Dainik Jagran and other on 14/Dec/2013 edition..

http://www.risingkashmir.com/18735/

http://www.statetimes.in/news/jkpcc-procures-3-suvs-drains-rs-75-lakh-fuel/ 

http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/news-pcc-buys-suvs-spends-75-lac-on-fuel-59021.aspx