The South Asian: Cloth Merchant Gets Fine Imposed on Government Engineer

July 04, 2006

Cloth Merchant Gets Fine Imposed on Government Engineer In the non-descript town of Akot, a cloth merchant—who has studied only up to Class XII—has used the Maharashtra Right to Information (MRTI) Act to ask for information on alleged corruption by Maharashtra State Electricity Board staffers. When information wasn’t given, he used the punitive clause of the Act to make an Assistant Engineer pay a fine. The amount by itself, Rs 250 per day for 13 days, is not much but it has sent shock waves throughout the MSEB.

Ravindra Tardeja was harassed by two MSEB engineers over alleged faulty meters at his home and shop. He went to the Assistant Electricity Inspector (AEI) who cleared him of all charges but neither informed him nor the MSEB. In September, Tardeja procured copies of the RTI Act from Mumbai. After studying it, he decided to probe the alleged corruption by MSEB engineers in various cases of permanent disconnection since 1986. With a copy of the Act, he filed an RTI application asking for information from Assistant Engineer K.M. Ingole. The AE sat on the file and Tardeja reported the matter to Executive Engineer B S Jaiswal at Akola. Citing MRTI provisions, Jaiswal asked Ingole to pay a fine of Rs 250 per day on Ingole for 13 days of delay.

"If I hadn’t done it to Ingole, my superiors would have done it to me", says Jaiswal, "I think this will lead to officers promptly providing information. But I am afraid that this will lead totheir arm-twisting by dubious complainants". Jaiswal, who has become the first appellate authority to act under MRTI, has been since flooded with inquiries.

Tardeja, is firm on asking for more. MRTI is my strength and I will use it to uncover corruption in Akot MSEB, he says. Be it Tardejas or the so-called anti-corruption crusaders, babudom is in for a long haul - at least in a state which can claim credit for giving its citizens power of information.

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Posted by rights_watch at July 04, 2006 11:38 AM

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