Details

Denis Giles

26 April 2013

Created: 26 April 2013

Last Updated: 26 April 2013

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By Gajanan Khergamker

Because of the trend of renting out government quarters to private individuals, many needy policemen were denied rooms that should have been rightfully given to them in the first place.

Just a little while back, it was revealed that about 40 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, presently in the service of the Maharashtra Government, did not submit the mandatory information regarding their property details to the Central Government.

All the officers were supposed to submit the details to the Central government before the 25th July 2012. But these 40 officers failed to do so for months after the deadline was over.

Refusal to divulge details seems fishy

Their reluctance to share property details only raises suspicion about their behaviour and questions legality of their property ownership.

A month after this report came another came, revealed details about police officers that showed them in worse light. Reportedly, a lady constable had filed a harassment complaint against her senior officers after she couldn’t take their harassment anymore.

It was reported that the woman constable had been continuously filing RTI applications asking for details about vacancy in police quarters since she was denied a room in the quarters and was told that that there was no vacant rooms in the quarters.

The woman constable had come to the city after finishing her training and had applied for a home in police quarters but was denied. Finding this suspect, she started filing RTI applications requesting details about police quarters.

The reply revealed that some of the senior police officers had given out the rooms in police quarters to their own personal staff (civilian) while denying the rooms to the deserving police officers. It was also reported that some of these staff members had been living in these quarters for more than a decade.

RTI applicant swift to get ‘own’ home

After the flurry of RTI applications the woman constable filed, she was granted a place in the police quarters almost immediately. But, even after she got the quarters she refused to relent and continued with her RTI application until the senior officers in question were forced to remove the civilians from the police quarters.

So, when a report suggesting that over 1,300 policemen live in the slums appears, it’s not really hard to put the two together and reach the logical conclusion.

An RTI application filed in March last year revealed that, till 2010, 1,300 policemen were living in slums. The statistics procured from the RTI query also had information of the year 2005 and 2006.  Apparently till less than a year ago 10 per cent of the police population lived in the slums. The RTI application was filed by former civic commissioner D M Sukhtankar were also forwarded to the Bombay High Court in connection with the PIL filed demanding basic amenity like water for people living in slums.

According to details revealed through the RTI application, a total of 4,494 police constables and officers out of 40,117 lived in slums in 2005 and in 2006, 4,834 out of 40,608 were living in slums, Reports of government quarters being letted or rented out had come out in the news time and again; And, not just in Mumbai but in other cities in the state too.

In June earlier last year, in Pune, reports of policemen letting out rooms in police quarters to private individuals came in the news. It was also reported that because of this trend renting out government quarters to private individuals, many needy policemen were denied rooms that should have been rightfully given to them in the first place.

But, they were denied a place in the quarters because the place was already rented out illegally to civilians.

Upon hearing about these illegal activities, the higher-up officers decided to cancel the allotment of staff quarters made to policemen who were illegally renting out the place to civilians.

This action was decided only after a complaint regarding this issue was received by the higher officials during the welfare committee. Policemen on not-so-higher levels have been denied allocation on many occasions and not always for the right reasons.

A report in April 2012 suggested a 56 per cent of the city cops weren’t provided government quarters. In all 26,613 policemen out of the total 48,888 did not get places in police quarters because the department was facing ‘financial crunch.

Around the same time in 2010, it was reported that even though there were vacant rooms in government quarters, the officers couldn’t live in the houses because the houses were in ‘dilapidated conditions’ and couldn’t be ‘lived in.’

Oddly, an RTI application filed around the same time indicated quite the opposite.

Not enough houses for police officers

According to the data mentioned in the reply to the RTI application, there weren’t enough homes to house all the officers. The department, it was reported, fell short by 13,000 houses.

With the way the department keeps leasing out plots for as less as Rs 30 for as long as 30 years, senior police officials letting out government quarters to civilians, it’s of no surprise that there are never enough ‘homes’ for policemen. Sadly, the policemen who stand for more than 12 hours a day performing duty aren’t even provided with houses entitled to them.

And it’s not just the city, reportedly 1, 22, 890 police officers out of 2,09,380 in the state have to arrange for their own accommodations as the department couldn’t provide them with house in government accommodations.

(Readers keen on seeking help on drafting RTI applications may write in to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Gajanan Khergamker on 022-22841593 for any assistance on RTI or to have their findings / issue featured here)

Details

Denis Giles

19 April 2013

Created: 19 April 2013

Last Updated: 19 April 2013

Hits: 13516

By Gajanan Khergamker

The Prime Minister has expressed his disdain with regard to the RTI Act being ‘misused’. MrManmohan Singh was recently reported saying such RTI applications are of no ‘benefit’ to people but only consume the officials’ valuable time, which can be otherwise used for a good purpose.

It’s ironic how the PM’s concerns only surface at a time when a string of scandals is unearthed through the RTI Act during the UPA regime.

Apparently, it was only after an  RTI was filed to question UPA president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign travel expenses and health care expenses (which supposedly went up to Rs 1,880 crore in past three years) and  her son-in-law, Robert Vadra’s alleged 300 crore land scam, that the PM feels the need to defend people’s privacy.

This is not the first time that a politician or a relative of a politician has been questioned about his/her expenditure while on duty through RTI. One look at the replies to the applications filed, explains the PM’s statement on people filing frivolous RTI applications.

Minister baying for austerity splurges

Earlier, in May last, an RTI query filed by an RTI activist and a journalist ShyamlalYadav, revealed Deputy Commissioner of Planning Commission of India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia spent around Rs 2.02 lakh daily (average) expenditure for trips between May and October 2011.

The findings revealed Singh undertook ‘four trips covering 18 nights that cost the exchequer a total of Rs. 36, 40, 140 an average of which comes to Rs 2.02 lakh a day.’

This was revealed at a time when the Tendulkar Committee re-evaluated the country’s poverty line and came out with a report according to which a rural Indian spending Rs 22.50 and an urban Indian spending Rs. 29 a day is not poor. According to this calculation, Singh’s expenditure is almost 50 times more than a common rural man!

And, it was around the same period that the-then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee (now the President of India) and prime minister had urged people to spend austerely during the ‘difficult times’. Oddly, it’s the common who pays taxes yet are urged to practice austerity while those in power who urge austerity indulge in luxuries rather ostentatiously.

Detailed statistics procured through RTI Act, filed by ShyamlalYadav revealed Montek Singh Ahluwalia made 42 official foreign trips in all and spent a total of 274 days abroad during his seven-year tenure, this is excluding the days spent in travelling. A total of 274 days in seven years is ‘one in every nine days’ spent abroad.

And, that excludes the days spent travelling. It was also reported that his ‘junkets’ abroad cost the exchequer a sum of Rs 2.34 crore.  This sum, oddly, is the least among the three different totals procured through the RTI application.

It wasn’t specified whether the figures mentioned, included the expenses incurred by Indian embassies abroad: If not, the original cost could be much higher.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on his part, in an attempt to justify the expenditure saying all his trips overseas, albeit expensive, were ‘necessary’ for the ‘discharge of official duties’. Oddly, 23 out of his 42 foreign trips were made mostly to the US.

Salaries unpaid yet junkets planned

In another case, around the same time, another minister was seen squandering the exchequers’ money. When the airline services, in the country, private or otherwise were going through a bad patch, so much so that Air India’s employees had gone on a strike for delay in payment of salaries, Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh had sent invitation to many journalists asking them to join him on his trip to the US where he was going to take the delivery of first Boeing 787 jets.

Invitations were sent to various media organisations via e-mail by the aviation minister, asking to join him in his visit to Seattle and Charlston, USA, from May 28 - 31 to get delivery of B787 Dreamliner and that their travel, accommodation, etc., will be taken care of. After this was reported, the trip was first postponed before being cancelled.

So, while the common man keeps struggling with inflation in probably every sector, ministers and government officials have no qualms while lavishly spending the common man’s hard-earned taxes. And, especially for something as insignificant as getting media coverage for their so-called ‘achievements’ like buying aircrafts from the US, at a time when they cannot afford to pay the staff their salaries on time.

So, even though this information wasn’t revealed though an RTI query, will the prime minister feel that this information had nothing to do with public and that the information officers would be wasting time culling out such information when asked for? The tax-paying common man has every right to know where and how his money is being spent; whether it’s right or not for these ministers to spend so much of his money on unnecessary frills is another question altogether.

For the PM to come out and say that the RTI Act is being misused and is infringing on the right to privacy of political leaders, he should consider the fact that being in a public arena does translate into surrender of one’s right to privacy, to an extent. Being in the limelight will inevitably lead to every act of yours, innocently innocuous as it may seem, analysed in the media and public glare. You will have to take your privacy being infringed upon in your stride.

People vote you to power. They may not have the right to know all about your personal life but have every right to know if your personal affairs are being funded by public wealth.

And when questioned, coming out in the open with correct and clear information will help hold onto people’s trust. Fighting that only make your intentions suspect.

Readers keen on seeking help on drafting RTI applications may write in to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Gajanan Khergamker on 022-22841593 for any assistance on RTI or to have their findings / issue featured here