While
GA Department denied information about
Governor’s visit to his home town , the
Office of Governor, Odisha shared all
information enforcing utmost transparency in their functioning.
Denial
of Information under RTI by Department of General Administration, Govt.
of Odisha about details of requisition
and proposal requiring financial sanction
given from Governor’s office for visit of Governor to his home town of
Harayana and sanction of Govt. – It confirmed
the conspiracy of State bureaucracy facilitated by Chief Minister’s Office to malign Governor
publicly, exposed under RTI
Dear friends
In
the first week of July, 2017, paid media of Odisha highlighted expenditure of
Rs. 44 lakhs towards hiring special chartered flight
for visit of Hon’ble Governor
from Bhubaneswar to his home town Sirsa of Harayana. This news was deliberately
given to press by corrupt bureaucrats
associated with Chief Minister’s
office to downgrade his image publicly. However after strong
reaction from Governor’s house ,
Dr.A.P.Padhi, Chief Secretary
personally met Governor, Odisha in Raj Bhawan and expressed
deep regret at the manner in which the
letter was issued to Governor’s office
after state Government received a bill
of Rs. 46 lakh as part of Governor’s
flying expenses.
To
understand gamut of issues and exchange of letters between office of Governor
and General Administration Department, RTI Application dated 11.7.18 was filed to both the PIOs of office of Governor,
Odisha and General Administration department seeking the following information.
·
Details of requisition and proposal requiring financial sanction given from Governor’s office to State
Government for visit of Governor to his home town of Harayana and copy of
sanction letter given by Govt. in this
regard.
·
Copy of air travel bill
submitted by Governor’s
office towards expenses of chartered flight
charge and helicaptor charge for
visit of Governor to his home .
·
Copy of the objection letter
sent by GA Dept. to Governor’s office in respect of air bill
submitted by Governor.
·
Copy of the Rules or order or
Notification in respect of expenses of travel for private tour, official
tour and foreign tour that Governor is entitled to avail it.
·
Information about details of
facilities, emoluments and allowances
that Governor is entitled to avail it.
1.
On 10.8.18., the
General Administration Department rejected
my application citing the ground
under section 8(1)(g) of the RTI Act. In fact this is not ground for rejection of application. As the State Govt. wants to keep this information secret to protect themselves from further expose of
their evil design to downgrade image of Hon’ble Governor, the PIO
has taken the plea of section 8 (1) (g) of the RTI Act. save their face
which has been exposed and tarnished evil after strong reaction from Governor’s
office. As per the said section 8(1)(g),
“ Information , the disclosure of which endanger the life or
physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or
assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purpose will be denied
to Information-seekers”. The counter-argument is that the information about Governor’s visit ,
use of flight and expenses towards it is not at all
secret information. As the money is paid from state exchequer, the
citizens have right to know about the expenditure. The disclosure of
information will no way endanger safety of Governor, as his visit has already
been over. The information sought for is no way related
to security nor supplied by law
enforcement authority. The information was sought about the copy of the letter sent
by GA Dept. to Governor House.
2. But the PIO, office of Governor’s house supplied all
the information sought for including copy of all letter correspondence with GA
Dept. The details of information supplied by the PIO dated 4.8.18 is as follows.
a. On 1st June, 2018, the office of Governor
sent a letter to GA Department for arranging a Charter Flight ( 8/10 seater) suitable for
his visit to Sisra in Harayana from Bhubaneswar on 10th June at 10 am and return from Sisra to Bhubaneswar 13th June at 11 am ,
2018.
b.On 2.6.18, GA Department wrote a letter to M/s
Pinnacle Air Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi for arranging a hiring chartered flight and
expenses required for said purpose which was promptly responded by that company on 4.6.18.
c. The hiring charge of twin engine jet aircraft legacy 650 ( VT-AOK/AOE) for use of Governor fixed
by M/s Pinnacle Air Pvt. Ltd is Rs. 44,72,000.00 which was accepted by GA Dept. on 6.6.18 and it was communicated
to the Office of Governor accordingly.
d. On 4.7.18,
Smt. Indira Behera, OAS, Deputy Secretary to Government, GA Dept. wrote a
letter No. GAD-AV-RES-0004-2017- 18773/Gen. to Special Secretary to Hon’ble Governor,
Odisha seeking necessary use/s
certificate that the Aircraft has been
used. In this letter, she mentioned that “ it
may kindly intimated the reason and circumstances for hiring of a helicopter for use of
Hon’ble Governor and deviation in
the approved schedule of the flight and whether approval of the competent authority has been taken for the
purpose or not”. This letter
generated sharp reaction from Governor’s
office for which Chief Secretary personally met Hon’ble Governor , begged
apology and assured him to take action against the concerned
official.
It deserves to mention here that unnecessary and useless expenditure and misuse of flight
causing crores of rupees loss to state exchequer has been done by Chief
Minister and his Govt. which has been thoroughly exposed several times earlier under RTI.
Pradip Pradhan, RTI
Activist
M-9937843483
Date- 15.8.18
No comments:
Post a Comment