Notice to B Big over poll campaign claim

UP Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on Tuesday asked Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to explain the basis of his claim that there was less crime in UP.

Updated on: Oct 3, 2007, 02:53:18 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Uttar Pradesh Information Commission has asked Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application, seeking to know on what basis he claimed that crime was low in Uttar Pradesh, even though individuals are not covered by the RTI Act. The state Information Commission has asked Bachchan to furnish the information within a fortnight or appear before the commission.

This is the first time an individual has been asked to reply to a RTI application of another individual. Chief Information Commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah, however, refused to comment on UP Information Commission’s order. When asked about the legal implications, Habibullah said: “Normally, show cause notices are issued to public authorities or Principal Information Officers. So far, the Central Information Commission has not issued even a single notice to an individual.”

The RTI Act clearly states that information can be sought only from public authorities under the RTI Act. The type of information sought is also defined —documents and records in possession of a public authority in which the government has a stake.

Brijbhushan Dubey of Gazipur had sent a RTI application to Bachchan, a few months ago, seeking to know the basis of his claim in the advertisement that UP me hai dum, jurm hai yahan kum (UP is strong, crime is less here) aired on television during April-May this year, a PTI report had said.

Dubey had sought for the central report on whose basis the superstar had claimed that crime was less in UP. He wanted certified copies of the report. Dubey had also asked Bachchan about the money he received for the advertisement and by whom and the nature of contract he had signed with the electronic media. Failing to get reply from Bachchan, Dubey filed an appeal before the UP Information Commission.

UP Chief Information Commissioner M A Khan issued a notice to the Bollywood superstar on Monday, asking him the basis for his claim, and fixed October 15 as the next date of hearing. The commission had earlier fixed two hearings seeking Bachchan’s reply but no one appeared, resulting in the summoning order.

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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