43,000 Toilets completed with expenditure of Rs. 200 crore in Odisha

43,000 Toilets completed with expenditure of Rs. 200 crore in Odisha under Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan- Inspection required

Dear friends

There is allegation in every district that huge fund sanctioned for construction of toilets in Schools has been misappropriated by Govt. officials and contractors. To find out details of fund sanctioned, utilised and number of latrines constructed which will help monitor the construction work; RTI Application was submitted to PIO, office of OPEPA, Govt. of Odisha seeking these information from 2015 to 2017. On 5.4.16, the PIO has supplied the following information. This information is presented in public domain to monitor whether toilets have been completed or not.

1. Under Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan, the State Govt.  has mobilised fund  various sources including corporate, different PSUs and Central Schemes. The details of fund received from PSUs and under Sarba Sikhya Abhijan  is as follows

Statement of fund received from PSUs under Swach Bharat Swach Vidyalaya

Sl.No	Name of PSUs	Date of receipts	Received	Released	UC submitted
1	BPCL	22.4.2015	1,97,50,000	1,97,50,000	----
		10.7.2015	1,97,50,000	1,97,50,000	---
2	HPCL	27.4.2015	3,95,00,000	3,95,00,000	,1,75,74,000
3	IOCL	30.4.2015	7,90,00,000	7,90,00,000
		14.2.2017	1,39,2000
4	GAIL	8.5.2015	3,03,36,000	3,03,36,000	6,79,83,000
		7.7.2015	1,64,32,000	1,64,32,000
		15.7.2015	3,03,36,000	3,03,36,000
		15.7.15	1,64,32,000	1,64,32,000
5	MCL	28.5.2015	10,72,50,000	10,72,50,000	38,96,80,000
		6.7.2015	25,91,000	25,91,000
		15.7.2015	11,96,00,000	11,95,99,400
		22.7.2015	47,30,27,000	47,30,27,000
		29.2.2016	42,66,000	42,66,000
6	SECL	28.5.2015	16,43,20,000	16,43,20,000	28,86,18,000
		16.7.2015	26,05,42,000	26,05,42,000
		24.7.2015	16,43,20,000	16,43,20,000
		29.7.2015	11,20,22,000	11,20,22,000
7	NTPC	7.7.2015	6,79,4000	6,79,4000	13,58,8000
		23.7.2015	6,79,4000	6,79,4000
8	Power Grid Corporation	8.7.2015	13,03,5000	13,03,5000
		17.7.2015	23,19,7560	23,19,7560
		22.8.15	7,39,440	7,39,400
9	ONGC	10.7.2015	81,84,400	81,84,400	2,59,50,000
		15.7.2015	32,73,7600	32,73,7600
10	CCL	24.7.2015	3,12,84,000	3,12,84,000	2,24,37,000
		25.7.2015	2,89,14,000	2,89,14,000
11	Swachh Bharat Kosh	18.5.2015	9,38,40,000	9,38,40,000	3,64,47,000
12	Airport  Authority	15.2.2016	36,34,000	36,34,000
Grand Total			191,00,20,000	190,86,27,400	91,54,97,000

Statement of fund released under SSA

Sl.No	Name of District	Amount in Lakhs
1	Angul	12.8000
2	Balasore	----
3	Baragarh	28.8000
4	Bhadrak	3.2000
5	Bolangir	27.2000
6	Cuttack	144.4000
7	Deogarh	19.2000
8	Dhenkanal	40.4000
9	Gajapati	59.2000
10	Ganjam	46.8000
11	Jagatsingh Pur	72.0000
12	Jajpur	27.6000
13	Jharsuguda	8.0000
14	Kalahandi	56.8000
15	Kandhamal	38.4000
16	Kendrapara	2.4000
17	Keonjhar	19.6000
18	Khurda	40.4000
19	Koraput	22.8000
20	Malkangiri	48.4000
21	Mayurbhanj	18.8000
22	Nawarangpur	18.4000
23	Nayagarh	20.4000
24	Nuapara	5.6000
25	Puri	68.8000
26	Rayagada	54.4000
27	Sambalpur	29.6000
28	Sundargarh	4.000
	Total	938.4000

2.  As per Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan, Rs. 1.58 lakh  is allotted for each toilet  in the school .

3.  Total no. of 43,300 toilets have been completed within two years  in 30 districts.  The district-wise figure about completion of toilet is as follows.

Total Toilets constructed  in Schools of different districts in Odisha

		State ( SSA, RMSA,SBK,Funds) toilets		Corporate supported toilets		PSU Total toilets
Sl.No.	Name of district	Approved/ booked	Completed	Approved/ booked	Completed	Approved/ booked	Completed
1	Angul	487	487	0	0	2164	2164
2	Balasore	23	23	0	0	281	281
3	Baragarh	133	133	0	0	2774	2774
4	Bhadrak	341	341	0	0	0	0
5	Bolangir	341	341	0	0	2414	2269
6	Cuttack	691	691	0	0	160	160
7	Deogarh	346	346	0	0	286	279
8	Dhenkanal	221	221	0	0	1037	1036
9	Gajapati	702	702	0	0	72	72
10	Ganjam	1732	1732	0	0	2085	2085
11	Jagatsingh Pur	325	325	0	0	22	22
12	Jajpur	1160	1160	0	0	1468	1468
13	Jharsuguda	103	103	0	0	313	313
14	Kalahandi	852	852	0	0	1953	1953
15	Kandhamal	250	250	0	0	825	770
16	Kendrapara	544	544	0	0	1319	1285
17	Keonjhar	1099	1099	0	0	1010	1010
18	Khorda	195	195	252	252	1767	1767
19	Koraput	83	83	0	0	1359	1295
20	Malkangiri	510	510	0	0	4	4
21	Mayurbhanj	510	510	0	0	628	628
22	Nabarangpur	444	435	9	0	2431	2400
23	Nayagarh	258	258	0	0	194	194
24	Nuapara	241	241	0	0	1402	1402
25	Puri	586	586	0	0	0	o
26	Rayagada	501	501	0	0	374	374
27	Sambalpur	228	228	0	0	1076	1076
28	Sonepur	124	124	0	0	289	289
29	Sundargarh	64	64	0	0	2448	2448
	Total	13,094	13,081	252	252	30,155	30,155

·         Total  Toilets approved  along with 358 low cost toilets-             43,501

·         Total toilets  completed                                                                   43,130

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 19.4.17 

Smt. Sashiprava Bindhani, most Inefficient Information Commissioner in Odisha-Why

Smt. Sashiprava Bindhani, most Inefficient Information Commissioner in Odisha-Why

(Bulletin-1)

 RTI is the most empowering law in India for the common people to think themselves as master of the country.  This law has not only empowered to citizens to access the information  held  by the public authorities  but  right to inspection of  records, documents and files in the offices of  Public Authorities.  Being empowered with RTI Act, the common people are using RTI to expose corruption as well as monitoring   status of their grievance petitions and denial of entitlements by officials. In case of complaints or appeals about denial of information or hindrance by the PIO to access the information, the State Information Commission is empowered to hear and dispose the case giving justice to the complainant/ appellant. If anybody is aggrieved with order of the Commission, he or she   is empowered to file complaint to Governor against State Information Commission under section 17 of the RTI Act seeking enquiry into it or challenge it  in High Court.  For this purpose, the copy of decision is required urgently from the office of Commission.

I am referring a case of Sashiprava Bindhani, SIC who has not only failed   to write the decision properly  but also    took months together to send the copy of the order.

1.      Being aggrieved  of   denial of the information by the PIO and First Appellate Authority,  office of Directorate of State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Odisha, I filed  second appeal to  Odisha Information Commission on 10.8.14.

2.      After two years, Hearing of the case started  in Odisha Information Commission. The  case is registered as Second Appeal No. 1971/2014.

3.       Smt. Sashiprava Bindhani , SIC who heard the case  fixing several dates  disposed my  case on 11.1.2017.

4.      It is generally expected  that the copy of the decision   will reach within few  days.

5.      But  I received the copy of my decision  on 10.4.17 , after around  3 months of disposal of the case.

6.         The moot question is  when Sashiprava Bindhani is drawing salary of Rs. 2,20,000/- per month with other allowances ad facilities  and supported by  a good number of Staff like Assistant Registrar, Law officer, Data processor and many more, why  she hears only  14 cases  in a day  and  takes  3 months to send copy of the order.  Is she incapable to write proceedings and order of the  case  and lack judicial  mind to quickly write  the order.  Or is she not  academically sound  to write order. 

7.      The primary work of  the people in Judiciary and quasi-judicial bodies  is  to hear the case properly,   deliver justice to aggrieved  people  and send  copy of the order to petitioner quickly in order to help him/her to pursue his/her case in another forum, if she or he  is not satisfied  with the decision.

8.      Is it not wastage of the public money?.   Even, the proceedings of the order also suffer from many mistakes.  Date of filling of Second Appeal, date of registration of Second Appeal, date of hearing of the cases, order of the Commission in different dates is not mentioned in the order.

9.      As the PIO has deliberately denied the information on useless ground,   Mrs. Bindhani exonerated him from penalty. 

10.  As the PIOs are being exonerated from penalty, they are seen encouraged to defy RTI Act and misbehaving the information-seekers.    

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-16.4.17 

Four Years passed with expenditure of Rs. 3 crore on Judicial Inquiry intoChit Fund with no result

Three crores spent for Judicial Commission on Chit Fund within four years with no Result

After  series of protests, Dharana and rally by innocent depositors  under the banner of Arthika Sansthamananka Dwara Khyatigrasta Milita Manch ( ASSKM)  across the state against fraud  Chit Fund Companies   promoted  by BJD Govt. ( Chief Minister  and other so-called  high profile Ministers  were brand Ambassador for  few fraud companies  like  Seashore  Company)   and some unscrupulous individuals collecting public deposits by defrauding innocent depositors,  the State Govt. constituted a Judicial Commission on 9.3.2013  to enquire into it  and submit the report within three months.

 The terms of reference of the Commission were as follows.

A.   Indentify the individuals and entities who have indulged in unauthorised  collection of public deposits  in Odisha.

B.   Probe and bring out involvement of influential persons , bureaucrats and other sections of the society, if any in protecting  or promoting  such illegal activities.

C.   Suggest measures to safeguard the interest of genuine investors affected by recent incidents  relating to unauthorised collection of public deposits  and its misappropriation.

D.   Suggest safeguard measures to ensure financial security  for the genuine investors  ad prevention  of such problem in future.

E.    Identify the bona fide investors  affected  by the unauthorised  financial transactions of fraudlent financial  establishments / companies  and suggest  the modalities  for payment of compensation, names of  the small investors eligible for compensation and the amount of compensation  payable from the corpus fund set up  by the Govt. for the purpose.

Sri Justice R.K.Patra, retired Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court  was appointed as Chairman of the Commission on 9.7.2013. After his death, Justice M.M. Das was appointed as Commission of  Inquiry  on 20.2.2015.

RTI Application was filed  to the PIO, Dept. of Home, Govt. of Odisha  seeking  information about   functioning  of the Commission,  report , if any submitted  by the Commission and  details of  expenditure made  for the Commission. The information provided by the PIO, Dept. of Home and Commission of  Inquiry on Unauthorised  Collection of Public Deposits is as follows.

A.       On 25.5.2016, the Commission has produced its first report  to State Govt

B.      On 3.2.2017, the Commission  has  handed over its second report to State Govt.

C.      Total Expenditure ( from 2013-14 to 2016-17)

·         Pay and allowance to Commission ad staff                   Rs. 1,99,64,298.00

·         Electricity dues                                                                           Rs.      2,15,481.00

·         Telephone Charges                                                         Rs.      1,89,368.00

·         Payment to OCAC for digitalisation of the affidavit        Rs.     84,39,955.00

·         Contingency                                                                     Rs.    22, 75,532.00

                                                                                                     -----------------------------------------------

                                                        Total                                                       Rs.    3,10,84,634.00

Comments

A.     As per TOR, the Commission is required to submit the report within 3 months.  But the Commission has taken four years to  complete the inquiry.

B.      Though four years passed, the Commission is yet to produce  the final report.

C.      Though the Commission has produced two reports, the State Govt. has not taken any steps  on the Report.

D.     More than 3 crores of rupees has been spent for Commission. But  the innocent  Depositors are yet to get justice.

E.      This is the efficiency, efficacy of the State Government and their  concern for poor depositors.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 16.4.17 

Suggestions from Odisha to Central Govt. about Draft Central RTI Rules, 2017

Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan

Plot No. D-27, Maitree Vihar, Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar

Email ID- odishasoochanaadhikar@gmail.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15.04.2017

To

 Gayatri Mishra

  Joint Secretary (IR)

 Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & pension

 Department of Personnel & training

  North Block

  New Delhi

Sub:    Framing  R.T.I rules 2017 in supersession of RTI Rules 2012 -  Comments/suggestions  regarding.

Dear Madam,

            As per your circular dated 31^st March 2017 regarding above mentioned subject, a State consultation was organised by Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan (a state–level forum of RTI Activists spearheading campaign for effective implementation of RTI Act in Odisha) at Bhubaneswar on 10.4.17. to prepare a note of  suggestions to Central Govt. for  making  the said draft Rules citizen-friendly, inconsonance with letter and spirit of RTI Act.  Good number of intellectuals, advocates, retired bureaucrats, RTI Activists, Civil Society Groups had participated in the deliberation and presented their views. I  am  herewith  forwarding  these   comments / suggestions  for your reference.

Draft Central RTI Rules, 2017
Rule	Existing provision	Suggestion	Justifications
Rule-4	Fees for providing information (C) actual cost of price for samples of models (d) Rupees fifty per diskette or floppy (g) so much of postal charge  involved  in supply of information that exceeds fifty rupees	(C) actual cost of price for samples  and /or  models (d) No fee for sending information in email, pendrive, CD and any other electronics medium. (g) to be deleted	Because, no cost is involved to provide the information in electronic means. As per Notification No.34012/ 13(s)/2005-Estt(B) dtd 6-10-2005, “… Since a number of public authorities do not have offices located at each sub-divisional level or sub-district level, the matter was taken up with the Department of Posts to provide the services of their Central Assistant Public Information Officers (CAPIOs) to function in that capacity for all public authorities under the Central Government…..”; “The Department of Posts have also indicated that they will be in a position to undertake the work only on behalf of those Ministries who have completed this action and have informed them of the same. Ministries/ Departments are, therefore, requested to indicate the details of the Central Public Information Officers designated by them as well as the nodal officers/ central point in their Department to receive the RTI mails (application etc. forwarded by the CAPIOs) to the Department of Posts urgently.”
Rule-6.	Mode of Payment of fees	Money order, paytm to be accepted as mode of payment of fees.
Rule-8	(1) (viii) A certificate  stating  that  the matter under appeal  has not been previously filed  and disposed  or are pending  with the commission or any court  and	To be deleted	As RTI Act concerns  only supply of  information to the information-seekers, no such type of certificate is   required  and it should  not be ground for rejection of appeal. Secondly, this provision has been borrowed from the impugned CIC (Management) Regulations 2007 [vide Regulation 9(6)]. The expression ‘any court’ is not only superfluous, but also counter-productive, since an RTI applicant may require a piece of information simply in connection with one of his cases pending in a court. Moreover, If the matter under the appeal was previously filed and disposed or are pending there will be a long time gap, obviously more than 90 days.  For delay there is rule to request for condonation vide Rule 8(vii).  So a certificate as required under Rule 8(viii) is not necessary.
	(ix) proof of service of appeal to respondent	To be deleted	It is presumed that proof of service of appeal to respondent means the copy of appeal to be sent to CPIO, First Appellate Authority (FAA) prior to sending it to Commission. It will be extra financial burden on the poor appellant to send the copy of appeal to respondent. The  present practice of  issuing notice along with copy of appeal petition by the Commission to CPIO  has been widely accepted  and it  has not  created any problem  for anybody in RTI regime.
	(2)      Before submitting an appeal to the Commission, the appellant  shall cause  a copy of the appeal to be served on the CPIO  and shall submit a proof of such service to the commission	To be deleted	DO
Rule-11	Procedure for deciding appeals (iii) inquire through authorised officer further details or facts	To be deleted	As required under section 18 (3) of the RTI Act,  the Commission is empowered itself to enquire  into  cases filed before commission.  Provision  for  appointment of enquiry officer  by  Commission is violation of the RTI Act. As per the Delhi High Court judgement in WP (C) 12714/2009 dated 21.05.2010 in the matter of DDA versus CIC and another, the Commission can’t delegate the enquiry power to any other officer outside its authority.
Rule-12	Withdrawal/abatement of appeal (1)                The Commission may in its discretion  allow a prayer for withdrawal of an appeal if such prayer is made by the appellant (2)                The proceedings pending before the commission shall abate  on the death of the appellant	To be deleted	Since 12 years of implementation of RTI Act, many RTI Activists have been murdered due to their fight to expose corruption through use of RTI. May of their  cases are pending in the commission. If the case will be closed, the information relating to corruption or their problem  may not come to public.  Secondly, it will encourage  the vested groups to  kill information-Seekers on the pretext  that  information about their misdeeds  will not be exposed. CIC RESOLUTION dated13-9-2011 reads, “2. This Commission, therefore, resolves that if it receives a complaint regarding assault or murder of an information seeker, it will examine the pending RTI applications of the victim and order the concerned department(s) to publish the requested information suo motu on their website as per the provisons of law.” Therefore abatement of pending proceedings on the death of the appellant is abatement of transparency.
Rule-13	Complaint to the Commission (1)(V) A  certificate  stating  that  the matter under appeal  has not been previously filed  and disposed  or are pending  with the commission or any court	To be deleted	Not required. The purpose of the law to find out information and to be acessable by the citizens. As per RTI Act, the cases relating to non-supply of information will be filed to  Information Commission only.
	(vi) Proof of service of complaint to respondent	To be deleted	It is the practice in the commission that the commission issues notice to respondent along copy of the complaint /appeal petition.  It is borrowed from CIC  (Management) Regulation 2007 vide Regulation 10 which has been quashed  by Delhi High Court ( WP C No. 12714/2009 on 21.5.2010.
	(3)                Before submitting  a  complaint to the commission,  the complainant shall cause  a copy of the complaint to  Central Public Information Officer  ad shall submit a proof of such service  to the commission	To be deleted	DO
15	(iv) the Commission may  in its discretion  allow  a prayer  for any amendment  of a complaint during hearing , including conversion of  the complaint into second appeal, if available remedies  have been exhausted  on a prayer  made by the complainant.	To be deleted	It will no way help the complainant or appellant. As per section 18 of the RTI Act, the Commission is empowered to take any kind of step to uphold the law and ensure justice to the complainant. There is no need of conversion of the case into second appeal.
16	(v) On receipt  of a non-compliance communication, the Commission shall determine  whether  compliance of the decision has been made. Where the Commission  finds non-compliance of its decision, it may proceed  action	To be added It may proceed action against public authority, CPIO and any referred PIO under the Act.  There should be provision for outlining detailed procedure with fixation of time limit for the Commission to initiate action against CPIO, FAA and Public Authority.
17	Xxxxxxx directs that the appeal/complaint/non-compliance or a category of the same may be posted for hearing/disposal by another bench or a bench of two or more information commissioners either at the request of an Information Commissioner or suo moto  if the same involves an intricate question of law or larger public interest.	To be deleted	As per section 18 ( 3) of the Act,  the Commission is required itself to  cause an enquiry into any complaint cases without assigning anybody for enquiry. Constitution of Bench  of CIC  which has found place in CIC  (Management) Regulation,2007    which has been quashed by Delhi High court  ( WPC 12714/2009 dated 21.5.2010.
18	Presence of parties  before the Commission (3)The Commission may allow  the parties to be present  in person or through authorised representative  or through video / audio  conferencing  at the time of hearing by Commission	The PIO/ public authority  who has violated RTI Act should not be represented by anybody. He himself is to be present in the hearing to respond the query of the commission.	As per section 19 (5) of the RTI Act,  any appeal proceeding, the onus to prove that  a denial of a request  was justified  shall be on Central Public Information Officer  who denied the request.  Similarly, as per section 20(1) of the RTIAct,  burden of proving  that  he acted reasonably or diligently  shall be on the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer as the case may be.
22	Language of the Commission (1)                An appeal or complaint or non-compliance communication  may be filed  in English or in Hindi  and all the documents  or copies thereof shall also be filed  in English or in Hindi	It should be in Hindi, English and other regional language	As per section 4(4) of the RTI Act, each public authority is required to disseminate all materials  taking into consideration the cost effectiveness, local language  and the most effective method  of communication  in the local area xxxxxxxxx.

 Thanking  you

Yours sincerely

Pradip Pradhan

State Convener

M-9937843482