AFTER THE Regional Passport Office, it was the turn of the DGP office to respond to the people’s right to seek information. A police personnel from the DGP office personally came to collect the applications, which its officers had refused to entertain only a couple of days ago, from the Hindustan Times ‘Drive Against Bribe’ camp on Wednesday.
Contrast this with the treatment meted out to a senior citizen, who had gone to move an application under the RTI before principal secretary, Home.
“The staff at the reception refused to accept my application saying that there was no Public Information Officer in the department,” said a harried Pratap Singh Mathur, a resident of LDA Colony on Kanpur Road.
Instead, they told me to put the application in an envelope and submit it to the chief secretary’s office, he added. Ironically, the list of PIOs appointed by the State Government in various departments contains the name of RP Shukla, a special secretary, as the PIO for Home Department.
The plight of VP Kannaujia, a former administrative officer in Azamgarh, demonstrates that some thick-skinned ‘babus’ are still hell-bent on dissuading people from seeking redress of their grievances by exercising their franchise under the RTIA.
A resident of sector – 19/986 Indira Nagar, Kannaujia is on the verge of penury and not in a position to pay even the college fee of his son simply because he is yet to get pension, more than five years after his retirement. He was among the 85 such harassed citizens, who were assisted in filing their respective applications before the appropriate authorities by trained volunteers of the camp at Ambedkar Mahasabha office on Vidhan Sabha Marg.
{{/usCountry}}A resident of sector – 19/986 Indira Nagar, Kannaujia is on the verge of penury and not in a position to pay even the college fee of his son simply because he is yet to get pension, more than five years after his retirement. He was among the 85 such harassed citizens, who were assisted in filing their respective applications before the appropriate authorities by trained volunteers of the camp at Ambedkar Mahasabha office on Vidhan Sabha Marg.
{{/usCountry}}A total of 90 people got themselves registered at the camp on Wednesday.
People like Bhagirathi Singh, an ex-serviceman from the armed forces, who had applied for a firearm licence with the district administration here on September 28, 2005, refused to grease the palms of the greedy ‘babus’ to get their work done.
“I have completed all the necessary formalities. In fact, Jai Prakash, Member of Parliament from Mohanlalganj, has recommended my application for a firearm licence. But the same is yet to be issued to me,” he said.
Singh, who moved an application under the Right To Information on the issue today, is determined not to pay bribe money to procure his arm licence.
“Some officials, like the District Magistrate of Unnao, are still not accepting applications from the people even though we had spoken to him on the issue,” said SR Darapuri, a retired IPS officer, who along with other social activists like Sandeep Pandey and Arundhati Dhuru etc is supervising the camp’s proceedings.