Citizens’ Monitoring of Functioning of Odisha Lokayukta

Citizens’ Monitoring of Functioning of Odisha Lokayukta through RTI

·         Odisha Lokayukta is still ill-equipped to discharge its duties due to huge staff shortage.

·         Only 28 officer and staff appointed against sanctioned post of 137.

·         109 sanctioned post still vacant.

·         Lokayukta has not yet completed preliminary inquiry in a single Complaint case so far.

Dear friends

RTI Act  has empowered  the citizens not only access information held  by the public authorities but also  demand accountability  from  the Govt. employees  and monitor  their  activities. Keeping it in view, RTI Application dt. 5.7.19. was filed by Santosh Mohanty, RTI Activist of  Mayurbhanj district  to the PIO, office  of Lokayukta, Odisha  seeking  information about  details of  complaint  cases  received , preliminary inquiry  completed, details of officer and regular staff appointed etc. On 1.8.19., the PIO has supplied the following information.

It needs to be mentioned here that Justice Ajit Singh of Assam has been appointed as Chairman of Lokayukta who joined on 20.3.19.  Office of Lokayukta, Odisha started functioning w.e.f. 8^th April 2019.  Justice Bijay Nayak, Dr. R.P. Sharma, Debabrata Swain  have been appointed as Members of Lokayukta.

1.       As per section  14 of  the Lokayukta Act, 2014,   Lokayukat  is required  to receive  complaints  and finish preliminary  inquiry  within 90  days( section 20).   The PIO  has  supplied  the  information that from May  to July, 2019, Odisha Likayukta  has received total  no. of 128  cases ( May- 28, June- 26  and July-74 ( upto 24.7.19) , But  yet  to  complete  preliminary inquiry of any  complaint cases  filed so far  within 3 months.

2.       Details  of  officers  and Staff appointed  in the office of Lokayukta, Odisha

Sl. No	Name of posts	Sanctioned strength	Men in Position	Vacant
1	Addl. Secretary	1	1	0
2	Finance Officer ( Joint Secretary)	1	1	0
3	Deputy Secretary	1	1	0
4	Sr. Private Secretary	1	0	1
5	Private Secretary/ Personal assistant	12	2	10
6	Sr. Steno/Jr Steno	9	2	7
7	Court Master / Section Officer	10	7	3
8	ASO/Asst.to Court Section	22	6	16
9	Sr. GR. Diarist	1	1	0
10	JR. GR. Diarist	1	1	0
11	JR/SR Driver	9	1	8
12	Librarian	1	0	1
13	Data Entry Operator ( DEO)	12	0	12
14	Record Keeper	1	1	0
15	Zamadar	10	0	10
16	Peon	41	3	38
17	DEO ( Issue and Despatch)	2	0	2
18	Choukidar-cum-Night Watchman	1	1	0
19	Receptionist	1	0	1
	Total	137	28	109

Sanctioned strength  and Men in Position ( Contractual)

Sl.No.	Name of post	Men in position
1	Date Entry Operator	1
2	Peon	3
	Total	4

Srikant Pakal

M- 9830440742

Date- 26.8.19

Conspiracy for shifting of Regional Office of CWC from Bhubaneswar to Patna

Conspiracy for shifting of   Regional Office of Central Warehouse Corporation from Bhubaneswar to Patna

Odisha High Court granted stay against execution of order of CWC, New Delhi

Dear friends

Central Warehouse Corporation, New  Delhi (  a Govt. of India undertaking)  functions  under  the administrative control of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food  and Public Distribution System  having its  corporate  office at New Delhi  with 13 regional offices  across the  country. Bhubaneswar Regional Office of CWC is one of them which started functioning from 1990 in Odisha.  As many as 21 Ware-house centres are there   in 15 districts of Odisha under the control of CWC Regional office, Bhubaneswar. The operational capacity of the Odisha Region is about 3.48 lakh MT which is ordinarily done through Warehouse centres.    

Warehouse is a place used for storage of foodgrains and other notified commodities by storing through out the year and releasing them as and when required.  Food  Supply  Corporation of  India , Odisha  Civil Supply  Corporation  Ltd. are  major  depositors   of  food grains  for storage  in warehouse  house  go-downs. Odisha Regional office caters need of the people efficiently, ensures timely delivery of food-grains from its  go-downs .  It is a profit-making institution since 5 years. The  State Govt. has  provided land at  various  places for  construction of  godowns from time to time   to enhance  storage  capacity of foodgrains.

On 26.7.19.,  the Govt. of  India  has taken  decision to merge  Bhubaneswar  Regional  Office  with  that  of  Patna , capital of  Bihar without  citing any reasons. It means Bhubaneswar Regional office will be closed down and operate from Patna Regional office. This arbitrary decision  of  Central  Govt. was  challenged  in Odisha  High  Court by Pradip pradhan, RTI Activist and Member  of Advisory  body  of NHRC  on Right to Food. Sri Pradhan has pointed out that   economy  of Odisha  depends  on agriculture. Farmers produce different type of food-grains in different season. Warehouse centres  provides  space  for  storage  of  their  food grains for  their future requirement  and helps  a lot  in supply  of  food-grains  at  the  time  of natural calamity.  The support  of Govt. of Odisha for  strengthening and enhancing storing  capacity  of Godowns  is remarkable.  This  Regional office  has become  a profit-making  institutions  since  last  five  years  and caters  to  the need  of the state  and adjoining  states  like Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.  If Bhubaneswar Regional office is shifted  to Patna, a lot  of  problem will arise . At first   it  will be expensive  for the depositors  to  run to  Patna  office  to sort  their  issues. Connectivity  to Patna  from Odisha will be  another  problem , as  Bihar  does not  have port facility.  Supply of food grains from warehouse inside the state  to nearby places of  other states  through Paradip Port  facilitating large public will be stopped.   Efficient  monitoring  of warehouse godowns,  timely  release  of foodgrains  will  no doubt hamper. By the way  in due  course of  time the whole  godown system  will  collapse  within few years  leading  to handing  over  of  it  to private  bodies  for  management.

On 16.8.19., hearing WP( C) No. 14130/2019 , the two-member  Division bench  of  Odisha  High  Court  has  granted  stay  order  on the  decision of  Central  Govt. for  shifting  Bhubaneswar  Regional office of CWC  to Patna and  issued  notice  to Managing  Director, Central Warehouse  Corporation, New Delhi  and Secretary, Ministry  of Consumer Affairs, Food  and Public Distribution System   seeking  response  by  17.9.19 , day  of  further  hearing. Sri Jyoti  Patnaik , advocate  and Sri Aswani Kumar Karmi, advocate are pleading  this case  in the  High Court.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-17.8.19

PPP in Urban Bus Transport is disaster in Odisha

PPP in Urban Bus  Transport  is  disaster  in Odisha

·  Rs. 185  crores  spent for  purchasing 185  buses for  town bus  services  in 2010 and 2014.

·  The  cost  of  purchase   per  bus  is  Rs. 1 crore.

·  Dream Team Sahara, a private body  was  given  responsibility  for management  of bus.

·  Within seven years  of  bus service, only  Rs. 8.5  crore  revenue  received  by Govt.  from Town bus  service  against  investment  of  Rs. 185  crores.

·  Within seven years, all 180  buses  are  defunct  lying in deserted locations of Bhubaneswar  and Cuttack. Only  five buses  are  in working  condition.

Is  it  the  result  of PPP ?

 Dear  friends

Few days  back, mass media   carried  news about defunct  of number  of town buses lying in deserted  places  of  Bhubaneswar  and Cuttack. This  news  prompted  me  to file RTI dated 5.7.19   to get  the  information about   Town Bus service  managed  under  BPTCL ( Bhubaneswar Puri Transport  Corporation Limited), no. of buses purchased, Private  operators  managing  the bus route  and plying  of buses etc.  . It  needs  to be mentioned here  that  the present “Mo Bus Yojana”  is  managed  by  CRUT ( Capital Region Urban Transport), another  company  registered  in 2018  under  the Companies  Act  by Govt. of Odisha. It is  replica  or  new Avatar of  BPTCL.

   BPTCL, a State  Govt.-undertaking  Company registered  under  the  companies  Act  in 2010 was  the sole public transport provider for Bhubaneswar & Puri city. It was primarily covering Bhubaneswar city and was providing connectivity to other cities like Cuttack, Puri, Jatni and Khurda. It was running all the bus operation in partnership with PPP partner Dream Team Sahara (DTS), Bhubaneswar.

 PPP ( Public-Private-Partnership)  is buzzword in  circle  of  state  administration  envisaged  to engage  private  players  for  service delivery  to the people. It prepares a  long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility, and remuneration is linked to performance. Keeping PPP  in view, It  is  thought  that Govt.  might  have   engaged  Dream Team Sahara , a private  body  for  effective management  of town bus service  in  Bhubaneswar  and other  cities .

The reply  of the PIO  dated 30.7.19 is as follows.

1.       Details  of  Bus  purchased  by  BPTCL for urban transport  services ( Town Bus ) as  follows.

Sl. No	Particulars	Year 2010 (  For 125  buses)	Year  2014 ( For  60  buses)
1	Details of  fund spent  for the  purchase  of bus	Rs. 17.00  crores	Rs. 18.29 crores
2	Name  of the Company which  supplied the buses	Tata Motors Rs. 10.00  crores	Tata Motors
		Swaraj Mazda Rs. 7.00  Crores

2.       Total  no. of  type of buses   purchased  used  for  town bus  service is as follows.

Sl. No.	Type of buses	Total No.
1	Swaraj Mazda	70
2	Tata Standard Buses	70
3	TATA A/C Standard Buses	12
4	TATA MIDI Buses	33
Total		185

3.       Details  of revenue  generated  from the  Town bus  service   deposited  by Dream Team  Sahara  from 2010-11  to  2017-18

Year  wise	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Revenue generated from bus service	23,191,594.00	1,34,12,041.00	27,29,023.00	32,80,821.00	1,59,01,777.00	1,68,83,902.00	66,49,610.00	45,12,960.00
Compensation paid  to the  companies  for management  of bus  against  the loss  suffered  by them	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL

Total amount  of revenue  received  within the period of  8 years  is  Rs. 8, 65,61,723.00

4.       What  is the  present  condition of the  Bus

The  PIO  has  replied  that all  180  no. of buses  are defunct and  only five  buses  having  no. OD-02-Q-4902, OD-02-Q-4904, OD-02-Q-9411, OD-02-Q-9413, OD-02-Q-9414  are  plying  on roads.

5.       The  PIO  has  not  provided  copy  of agreement  signed  with Dream team Sahara  for  management  of  bus service. On 12.8.19., the  first  appeal has been  filed   to the  First Appellate  Authority  for  supply  of the  information.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date – 13.8.19 

Fund for Disaster response released by Central Govt. to Govt. of Odisha

Fund for Disaster response released by Central Govt. to Govt. of  Odisha

Dear  friends

RTI Application was  filed to the  PIO, Ministry  of Home Affairs, Govt. of  India  seeking  information about  details of fund sanctioned  to Govt. of  Odisha  to deal  “ Fani” disaster  situation  in 2019  and  details of  fund released  under   SDRF ( State  Disaster Response  Fund )  and NDRF ( National Disaster Response  Fund)  from 2014-15  to 2019-20.  On 17.7.19.,  the  PIO  has  supplied  the  following  information.

A.     In order  to support to the affected people of Odisha, the  Govt. of India  has released  assistance  of Rs. 211.125  crores  from State  Disaster Response  Fund  and Rs. 788.875 crore from National Disaster Response  Fund ( NDRF) to  Govt. of  Odisha for management  of relief necessitated by cyclone ‘Fani” of 2019.

B.      The  details  of assistance  provided  by Govt. of  India  to  Odisha  Govt.  to  meet  expenses  for  relief  operation  during  disaster  situation  from 2014-15  t0 2019-20  is  as follows.

Year	Central share released under SDRF ( Rs. In crores )	Amount  released  under NDRF ( Rs. In crores)
2014-15	356.99	0.00
2015-16	560.25	574.6925
2016-17	588.75	425.66
2017-18	618.00	0.00
2018-19	778.50	341.72
2019-20 ( till July)	681.75	788.875

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-13.8.19

3 RTI Success Stories of Common People in Rajasthan

Three examples  of Rajasthan  where RTI was used to access entitlements by ordinary citizens

1. RTI in Social Security Pension

In June 2016, out of 68,45,252 Social Security Pensions sanctioned in Rajasthan, 7,60,426 pension accounts were cancelled by the State Government. This information was not made public by the Government. The Right to Information Act was used to procure the list of pension applications cancelled and the reasons for their cancellation. A range of reasons were revealed as having been recorded to justify cancellation - such as “Death”, “Duplicate”, “Incorrect application”, “Ineligible” and “Other reasons”. It was revealed that nearly 2,95,000 pensions were stopped mentioning the reason as "Death". In June 2016, a survey conducted in Kushalpura Gram Panchayat, Bhim Block, Rajsamand District revealed that out of 44 pensioners declared "dead" in government records, 21 were alive and weren't getting social security pensions. Similarly, in Bhim Block out of almost 3000 cancelled pensions, nearly 1300 were found to be unjustifiably cancelled and then subsequently restored. Many of these families were only dependent on Social Security Pensions for their survival. After this a reverification exercise was conducted across the state and many such pensions restarted. This shows how information is vital and relates to life and death of many people.

2. RTI in School Education

Appointment of only three teachers to teach nearly 700 girls, led to a strike by girl students of a Government Higher Secondary Girls School in Bhim, Rajsamand. Subsequently, an RTI application was filed about teacher vacancies in the State of Rajasthan which revealed that there existed 30-50% vacancies across different categories. This led the Soochana Evam Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan (SR Abhiyan) to file RTI applications across 5000 Government Schools in different districts of Rajasthan. This campaign for information in education known as “Shiksha Ka Sawaal” led to widespread reform, including the appointment of teachers. In the Government School where the strike took place for instance, the RTI campaign led to teacher appointments going up from 3 to 15.

3. RTI in Ration

Despite the introduction of Aadhar and mandatory biometric authentication it was found that large numbers of people in Jaipur were being denied their rations as was mandated in the Law. By accessing information made available by the Government of Rajasthan as per the provisions of mandatory disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act, and its verification with actual beneficiaries and residents revealed huge discrepancies in rates charged and quantum of foodgrains distributed. Confronted with this information by the beneficiaries in January 2017, a Ration Shop dealer in Khatipura Kumawat Colony of Jaipur City immediately returned nearly 5,000 kgs of pilfered amounts of foodgrains to the beneficiaries. Similarly in 2017, in Katar Gram Panchayat of Rajasthan, information distributed amongst beneficiaries led them to confront their Ration Shop dealer which resulted in more than 50,000kgs of foodgrains being brought to the village to distribute as per pilfered amounts over a year. In all such cases, rations had been shown as having been distributed through Aadhar based Biometric Authentication (ABBA).

Circulated  by Nikhil, RTI Activist and National Convener, NCPRI

3 RTI Success Stories o Ordinary Citizens of Rajastahn

Three examples  of Rajasthan  where RTI was used to access entitlements by ordinary citizens

1. RTI in Social Security Pension

In June 2016, out of 68,45,252 Social Security Pensions sanctioned in Rajasthan, 7,60,426 pension accounts were cancelled by the State Government. This information was not made public by the Government. The Right to Information Act was used to procure the list of pension applications cancelled and the reasons for their cancellation. A range of reasons were revealed as having been recorded to justify cancellation - such as “Death”, “Duplicate”, “Incorrect application”, “Ineligible” and “Other reasons”. It was revealed that nearly 2,95,000 pensions were stopped mentioning the reason as "Death". In June 2016, a survey conducted in Kushalpura Gram Panchayat, Bhim Block, Rajsamand District revealed that out of 44 pensioners declared "dead" in government records, 21 were alive and weren't getting social security pensions. Similarly, in Bhim Block out of almost 3000 cancelled pensions, nearly 1300 were found to be unjustifiably cancelled and then subsequently restored. Many of these families were only dependent on Social Security Pensions for their survival. After this a reverification exercise was conducted across the state and many such pensions restarted. This shows how information is vital and relates to life and death of many people.

2. RTI in School Education

Appointment of only three teachers to teach nearly 700 girls, led to a strike by girl students of a Government Higher Secondary Girls School in Bhim, Rajsamand. Subsequently, an RTI application was filed about teacher vacancies in the State of Rajasthan which revealed that there existed 30-50% vacancies across different categories. This led the Soochana Evam Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan (SR Abhiyan) to file RTI applications across 5000 Government Schools in different districts of Rajasthan. This campaign for information in education known as “Shiksha Ka Sawaal” led to widespread reform, including the appointment of teachers. In the Government School where the strike took place for instance, the RTI campaign led to teacher appointments going up from 3 to 15.

3. RTI in Ration

Despite the introduction of Aadhar and mandatory biometric authentication it was found that large numbers of people in Jaipur were being denied their rations as was mandated in the Law. By accessing information made available by the Government of Rajasthan as per the provisions of mandatory disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act, and its verification with actual beneficiaries and residents revealed huge discrepancies in rates charged and quantum of foodgrains distributed. Confronted with this information by the beneficiaries in January 2017, a Ration Shop dealer in Khatipura Kumawat Colony of Jaipur City immediately returned nearly 5,000 kgs of pilfered amounts of foodgrains to the beneficiaries. Similarly in 2017, in Katar Gram Panchayat of Rajasthan, information distributed amongst beneficiaries led them to confront their Ration Shop dealer which resulted in more than 50,000kgs of foodgrains being brought to the village to distribute as per pilfered amounts over a year. In all such cases, rations had been shown as having been distributed through Aadhar based Biometric Authentication (ABBA).