CIC to Delhi chief secy: save files left by Cong govt

The Central Information Commission has directed the Delhi chief secretary to preserve all files, some of which "can be evidence of corruption", left by the Congress government.

Updated on: Dec 28, 2013, 19:29:28 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Delhi chief secretary to preserve all files, some of which "can be evidence of corruption", left by the Congress government.

The order comes after Venkatesh Nayak and Maja Daruwalla, two members of international NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, filed a petition with the CIC on Friday following a sting operation by a TV channel.

The channel broadcast footage of files allegedly being destroyed in the office of former transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, who is now Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president. Lovely, however, denied the charges.

But, the CIC took cognisance of the complaint and instructed the Delhi chief secretary to ensure that public records, an important state property, be protected.

"They can be evidence of corruption or innocence of responsible public servants," the CIC said.

The directive was issued a day ahead of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) forming a new government. The AAP, which fought the elections on promises of a corruption-free Delhi, has scored a thumping victory over the Congress in the December 4 polls.

The commission also invoked special powers under Section 18 of the Right To Information (RTI) Act which requires public authorities to submit a list of destroyed (legitimately or otherwise) public records (papers and documents) in custody of the government along with the justification for destruction.

Using the powers granted under the RTI Act, the CIC instructed the chief secretary to issue necessary directions to record officials and public information officials to "keep safe" files.

"The commission also directed the respondents to alert the vigilance officers/any other concerned officers to take all preventive steps to protect the records from destruction," the CIC said.

Information commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu also asked the chief secretary to initiate criminal proceedings against any official found to be destructing records as it amounts to serious offence under the Indian Penal Code.

The complainants have alleged that the destruction of files would prevent pleas under the RTI and will curb one’s right to seek information from people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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