Letter to Director of the Department of Women and Child Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi to put ICDS related information in public domain as per sec. 4 of Right to Information Act, 2005 and pursuance of Supreme Court decision W.P.(C) No. 196/2001 dated 07/10/2011

Date: 5.12.2011 

To,

The Director

Department of Women and Child Development

Govt. of NCT of Delhi

1 Canning Lane, K.G. Marg,

New Delhi

Subject: Regarding putting Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) related information in public domain as per sec. 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and pursuance of Supreme Court decision W.P(C) No. 196/2001dated 07/10/2004.

                                                                                                        

Sir/ Madam

Indians for Transparency filed RTI application with your department and inspected several files related to functioning of Integrated Child Development Scheme in Delhi. It has been observed that there is a selection committee to select Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) and several NGOs engaging to supply of supplementary nutrition and food items to ICDS projects. There are 94 projects in Delhi which are being catered to by NPOs. There are other important information like allocation of funds, number of beneficiaries, details information of self help groups engaging in supply of supplementary nutrition and food items to ICDS projects, not put on the website of the department, which is important for the sake of the transparency for the people should know how the system operated.

Sec. 4 (1) a) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, stated clearly that “Every public authority shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilities right to information under this act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized  and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records to facilitated”, So as per the provision, it is the prime responsibility of the Public Information Officer to maintain all records computerized and put in the public domain through website and other means.

As per Supreme Court of India’s judgment, W.P(C) No. 196/2001 dated 7/10/2004 by which already given direction (no. 4) that “All state Government/Union Territories shall put on their website full data for the ICDS schemes including where AWCs are operational, the number of beneficiaries category-wise, the funds allocated and used and other related matters”. As per directions, Supreme Court of India had fixed the responsibility of the state to put all concerned information on the website.

We would like to your keen attention on the issue and request you treat this matter sincerely and do the needful.

Thanking you

(Yogesh Kumar)

Indians for Transparency

House No. 585, Street No.5,

Chanderlok, Shahdara, Delhi- 110093

E-Mail Id: indians4transparency@gmail.com

Copy to: Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, GLNS Complex, Delhi Gate, New Delhi-110002

Our Strategy

“Two days, Three Offices and fourteen signatures”

‘Revoke of the suspension’

“There was no need for this judicial custody after five years” – Manoj Parida, Secretary (Social Welfare)

“Reinstate the officer so that he can retire on duty” – Manoj Parida requesting to the LG on behalf of Mr. P. N. Jha.

                     

                        It is a matter of Rs. 10 crore procurement scheme related to the 2005-2006 financial year, involving homes for destitute children under social welfare Department, government of Delhi.

The investigation was initiated in 2008 after secured the forged quotations from the department with the use of RTI applcation. The officials who were part of the purchase committee in 2005-2006, were arrested. Mr. P.N. Jha and two officials of the rank of superintendent were arrested on July 14, 2010. They were sent to judicial custody and placed under “deemed suspension” under the service rules.

The matter of action to be taken against Mr. Jha sent to Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta and Rajender Khanna and the official were placed under deemed suspension on 26^th July, 2010. Within two day the officials backing Mr. Jha moved another application to revoke his suspension. The file moved from chief secretary to the LG’s office and went back to chief secretary on July 29, 2010. The next day, on July 30^th, it passes 11 desks, including Social Welfare Secretary and the Director of the Departments Vigilance Branch.

The order revoking the suspension was issued on July 30^th. Mr. Jha retired on July 31, 2010 with all benefits he could get under the service rule. Surprisingly , the file passed the desk of the Lt. Governor and chief secretary twice on the same day, but neither raised the question of possible ‘mala fide’ intensions behind the swift movement of the file.

The whole episode exposes the system and proves that we are suffering just because of favouritism.

Why government revoke the suspension of Mr. Jha, despite of fact that other two officers along with remain suspended? Why department gave clean chit to the erring one without proper investigation? Do they the deal the file of Common Man like this?

Red-tapesinm- A myth !

 

During my childhood days, I read on a wall painting  that system could function in better way if IASs and IPSs start to perform in a fair manner. With the passage of time , through my book I Came to know that, these IASs and IPSs are the bureaucrats and one out of the four important pillars of the democracy. Same books enlightened me that the same bureaucracy have their own loop holes. Red-tapeism is one of them. In general , we can define red-tapeism as  collection or sequence of forms and procedures required to gain bureaucratic approval for something. Everybody in his life at a certain point surely have been the victim of the same . Either a commoner or an learned person, can speak on the same with out any coaching or training.But , we are not here to show how slow our system is. In fact, we want you to know the other side of the coin. How fast our bureaucrats can work when vested interstates are there. It is the case of Social welfare Department of Delhi Government. I would like to share , a file walked three offices and 14 desks in two days. Out of these 14 desks 11 desks were crossed in a single day. It seemed the whole department from top to bottom working to clear the file.Lt. Gen. of Delhi and Chief Secretary were the part of this unusual chain.  It becomes more suspicious when  these efforts were made out to revoke the suspension of a tainted colleague. We are not against  why the officers worked so swiftly. In fact it is good. But unfortunately, swiftness is missing when it is necessary for the common man. This time almost all the department rallied behind the suspended employee and acted like a rocket. But the same system becomes ttortoise when it comes other public oriented work.The whole episode strengthen the notion the system works to save erring ones instead of fixing them up. Take the example of pending cases in the Courts and pending files in the various departments. I got to learn in school days that we are suffering because Government employees do not work. Here, I watched them working like a rocket but to save a man who is suspected to be involved in a scam of 10 Cr ore. So being a common man, I am on a lost end in both situations.