PRESS RELEASE Mumbai, 13th November: Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari was taken aback when eight activists stormed into the Maharashtra State Information commission on 12th November with an appellant Dr Nagendra Pandey. "You people are raiding our office," he said, flustered, when confronted by activists who asked to inspect 120 files of appeals and orders. Told that the executive assistant of Chief SIC Dr Suresh Joshi had known about the impending inspection for a week, he went on the back foot. He was also shown a letter emailed to his personal assistant Mr Bhadikar the previous day, which described the files to be inspected.
Pleading his staff's inability to show the files at short notice, SIC Tiwari negotiated dates. *Finally, the staff was instructed to immediately issue a letter formally confirming the inspection on Monday, 17th November.* The activists present were: (1) Krishnaraj Rao (2) G R Vora (3) Mohammed Afzal (4) Sundeep Jalan (5) S K Nangia (6) Milind mule (7) Bhaskar Prabhu (8 Rupchand Laungani The same morning, Dr Nagendra Pandey had a hearing of his case. Activists Krishnaraj, Vora and Afzal were present at this hearing also. The PIO was given a further 15 days to provide information, and a hearing date was accordingly given. This was the 4th instance when SIC Tiwari gave the PIO "one more chance to provide the information", which was sought from the office of Deputy Registrar of Cooperatives (MHADA). The PIO Mr Hande arrived very late, when the hearing was nearly over. Mr Tiwari was defensive and apologetic, but made no secret that his sympathies lay with the PIO. "As you know, I am a former bureaucrat from Urban Development department" he said. *"I know the difficulties of officers assigned the PIO's job. Having myself committed the sin of delay many times, I am unable to strictly impose penalties,"* he admitted, when asked why he was not penalizing PIOs for many months of delay or denial of information. Thus, he inadvertently confirmed what activists had been saying all along! SIC Ramanand Tiwari pleaded that PIOs had a thankless job, but he did not acknowledge the endless struggle of appellants like Dr Pandey, who had been seeking information since filing his RTI application in November 2006! *Thanks to the sustained activist pressure since 22nd October, there was a marked change in Mr Tiwari's behavior.* He was cowed down and at pains to explain his orders. When the activists questioned his habit of making appellants give reasons for wanting information, he said that his intention was not to cow down the appellant, but he conceded that maybe he was wrong in questioning the appellant. Similarly, he acknowledged that maybe the time had come for SICs to stop allowing 'grey areas' to exist (ie. PIO is asked to give information, but not penalized for delay of several months and years), and instead, to make everything black-and-white (ie. If denial of information is not justified under RTI Act, PIO must be penalized.) "Please study my orders and give me feedback as to how I can improve," he said, in a conciliatory parting tone. On October 22nd, when he was asked by Krishnaraj, Vora and Afzal to justify giving orders outside the RTI rules, he* *had blustered,* "If I had the power of contempt, you would have been in trouble. You cannot question my orders. If you are unhappy, you may go to the High Court!"* But yesterday, over two meetings with his chamber full of activists, totaling half-an-hour, he made no effort to claim judge-like status; he was quite clear that SIC was just a public authority which was full of incompetent bureaucrats and other government personnel. "One person assigned by GAD for assisting me used to tend to cattle at a *tabela", *he confided, pleading his inability to better the Information Commission's performance. *Nonetheless, the activists registered their protest with a handwritten letter addressed to the Chief State Information Commissioner that read as follows: *"While we have accepted your proposal to come for inspection on Monday, 17th November at 11.30 a.m. , we would like to invite your kind attention that under section section 4 read with section 2 (j)(i), every public authority has an obligation to allow inspection of files without appointment, prior appointment or any preconditions. We expect that henceforth, your office will give inspection of all your records which can be given under RTI Act, sought by any citizen of India." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
