Dear all,
The report appeared on to-days's Bangalore mirror is reproduced, the figures
given to me thru RTI is for the financial years 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and
2008-09 and not as published for calander year 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 I had
apprised the reporters about the error
with regards,
Anil
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/daily/skins/MIRROR/navigator.asp?login=default
BBMP’S BLUFF CALLED
RTI activist throws light on the BBMP ‘double-talk’; the information given to
legislator and activist on the civic body’s spend on fogging operations don’t
ADITI SONI & ATUL CHATURVEDI
One question, two different answers. That’s BBMP for you. While a prominent
legislator was told that few crores of rupees had been spent on some works, an
RTI activist has found these figures don’t match with the data he has received
on the same works for the same period.
Roshan Baig, Shivajinagar MLA, on July 21 had raised a question in the state
assembly on how much money the civic body had spent on mosquito eradication and
anti-larval operations in the last four years. Some statistics had been reeled
out and the legislator’s mouth ‘sealed’.
‘UN-MATCHED’
RTI activist M V Anil Kumar, a resident of Ashwini Layout, posed the same query
to the BBMP in May this year via an RTI application. The figures, however, left
him shocked as they didn’t match with the answers the legislator got.
While Baig was told a total of Rs 3.57 crore had been spent in the last four
years, the RTI activist was told the civic body had spent Rs 16 crore.
When asked, K S Venkateshappa, Deputy Commissioner (Health), BBMP, said, “I
don’t know anything about it. I don’t understand how there could be such a huge
difference. Some medical health officer must have given out the data.”
PASSING THE BUCK
When asked who that officer could be, he declined to comment. Medical health
officers said they had nothing to do with it. “Higher officials deal with these
issues. We are not answerable to these things,” said Jayaprakash, Medical
Health Officer, Koramangala.
Anil said it’s a sad state of affairs. “It’s hard to believe the entire
assembly has been misled. Thankfully, we have RTI to get to know the real
picture,” he said.
Baig said the government had tried to ‘fool’ him. “I have never seen fogging
operations being taken up anywhere in Bangalore or my constituency. But when
asked, I was provided with wrong figures. I approached the BBMP Commissioner
and he said he would discuss the matter later,” he said.
“I would rely on RTI figures than what has been told to me in the
legislative assembly,” he added.
BBMP spending on mosquito control
Year Assembly Figures obtained
Figures thru RTI
2005 19,21,922 3,42,18,773
2006 51,00,423 3,80,17,563
2007 83,14,058 4,59,29,855
2008 93,96,583 4,19,30,466
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
