tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:16:04 +0000http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)Blogger106125ADropInAnOceanhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-7435824667094038441Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:21:00 +00002010-06-10T23:23:30.130-07:00Sometime back I had sought an appointment with the Secretary of the Personnel and Adminsitrative Reforms Department, wanting to discuss the issue of appointment of Information Commissioners. I was hoping that the letter that was sent sometime back (can be seen here http://www.box.net/shared/v88kpb0zc0) would elicit a response. But since that did not happen, I had sought an appointment with him. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/jVUNvIbvwL4/sometime-back-i-had-sought-appointment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)4<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/jVUNvIbvwL4" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/06/sometime-back-i-had-sought-appointment.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-2517244858440459420Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:46:00 +00002010-06-02T19:40:15.813-07:00As is public knowledge Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran has been accused of various forms of corruption like encroaching on government lands, giving biased orders and other such charges. The actual complaints filed by Chennai based lawyers can be downloaded from here and here.These complaints were filed when when Dinakaran's name came up on the list of judges who were to be http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/rh8VHxe8it0/thiruvallur-collectors-report-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/rh8VHxe8it0" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/06/thiruvallur-collectors-report-on.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-3152974724792639829Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:16:00 +00002010-06-02T18:46:39.547-07:00Even before I had filed an RTI seeking copies of the assets statements of the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, I had filed a RTI seeking information on WHETHER IAS and IPS officers have been submitting their statements and if not, the list of officers who have not submitted their statements. I filed this RTI on 2-Dec-2008.For this I received a reply stating that the property returns of the IAS http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/RdZfkwM5lfc/chief-secretary-does-not-even-want-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/RdZfkwM5lfc" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/06/chief-secretary-does-not-even-want-to.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-9161627825039064798Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:20:00 +00002010-04-26T03:28:52.461-07:00Krishnaraj Rao of Mumbai and I, have initiated a campaign demanding transparent appointment of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission and Tamil Nadu State Information Commission. Here is a bit of background on why the campaign is crucial. The rest of the details are available atwww.tinyurl.com/applyforcic (appointments to Central Information Commission)www.tinyurl.com/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/h8L-ST3dZYc/demand-transparent-appointment-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/h8L-ST3dZYc" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/04/demand-transparent-appointment-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-4752192694203778441Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:08:00 +00002010-03-19T19:44:35.011-07:00The Chennai Corporation has 155 wards, and each ward has an elected councillors. Chennai Corporation allocates some amount every year (It is 25 lakhs for the present financial year) to each councillor under which he can ask the corporation to do some specific works in the ward. This was implemented on the lines of MLA and MP constituency development funds. Sometime back I had filed an RTI http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/FO-u1o9iUh0/councillors-ward-improvement-fund.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/FO-u1o9iUh0" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/03/councillors-ward-improvement-fund.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-5815126189335507239Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:44:00 +00002010-03-10T02:10:11.282-08:00The DVAC has gone on appeal to a division bench of the high court again challenging the dismissal of its earlier writ challenging the SIC's order asking DVAC to disclose information to me. This case came for hearing last friday (March 5th 2010) where it was granted interim stay. The case has now been posted for hearing on April 19th. (Case no. WA 321/2010)Court stays order on DVACDebate over RTI http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/i6bxNIRB1MU/dvac-gets-temporary-relief.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/i6bxNIRB1MU" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/03/dvac-gets-temporary-relief.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-9057779368807895823Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:39:00 +00002010-02-28T22:41:18.211-08:00I had drafted a letter to the Chief Secretary and the Secretary of Personnel and Administrative reforms seeking a public consultation to evolve a transparent appointment procedure for appointment of Information Commissioners to the State Information Commission. Then I got it signed by some eminent people in Tamil Nadu and by groups interested in RTI. The scanned version of the letter and it doc http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/NfsJS2-ED0g/letter-seeking-transparent-appointment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/NfsJS2-ED0g" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/02/letter-seeking-transparent-appointment.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-8978234960521788861Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:03:00 +00002010-02-19T23:11:14.590-08:00An RTI application filed with the Chennai Corporation has revealed that on a day when 2 flyovers and a subway were inaugurated by the Chief Minister, close to 24 Lakhs were spent on the inaugural functions. This is equivalent to the amount that is allocated to each councillor for his/her ward improvement works for a complete year, which is 25 Lakhs. This was featured in Times of India today and http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/dWzX6VJVIB0/functions-they-indeed-are.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/dWzX6VJVIB0" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/02/functions-they-indeed-are.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-1078944744043681718Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:15:00 +00002010-02-16T03:19:37.543-08:00Right now, I am working on Transparent Appointment of Information Commissioners in Tamil Nadu. In this direction, as a first step I have drafted a letter to be sent to the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the Secretary of P&AR department, asking them to hold a public consultation to decide on a procedure for appointment of Information Commissioners. The letter can be seen here.Another importanthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/VjeQl00WKyo/transparent-appointment-of-information.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/VjeQl00WKyo" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/02/transparent-appointment-of-information.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-2335351176567501748Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:24:00 +00002010-01-12T21:39:01.157-08:00I had written sometime back that DVAC has challenged the SIC's order, asking it to disclose information relating to investigations on corruption, in the Madras High Court. This came up before Justice Chandru, who has been disposing of a lot of RTI related cases in the past 10 days. He dismissed it without even giving notice to the respondents.Actually this was stayed by the High Cout in Nov 2009.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/qlRrWm3OGPo/hc-dismisses-dvacs-writ-petition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/qlRrWm3OGPo" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/01/hc-dismisses-dvacs-writ-petition.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-6737290032752685202Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:55:00 +00002010-01-04T03:01:34.745-08:00Mr.Arasu (Anti Corruption Movement), Mr.Ranganathan (Transparency International) and I were part of the meeting with the P&AR secretary on 14th December 2009. We started the meeting with a follow-up based on a letter that AKV had sent to the Chief Secretary after a meeting with him.We asked the P&AR secretary about a regular review by the Heads of Departments regarding RTI. He said he will http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/AjQSCk3O4qc/meeting-with-p-secretary.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/AjQSCk3O4qc" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2010/01/meeting-with-p-secretary.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-3022467312917093205Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:01:00 +00002009-12-16T23:07:42.750-08:00After a hectic 3 days, the writ petition has been filed today against TN SIC's order not allowing disclosure of IAS assests. It might come up for admission by Saturday. Of course the first step is that it will be admitted and the respondents will be sent notices, so there is not much to expect on saturday. It is just a formality. The case will most probably be taken up for detailed hearing only http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/iFvf3Ef5ano/writ-against-sics-orders-on-ias-assets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/iFvf3Ef5ano" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/12/writ-against-sics-orders-on-ias-assets.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-7965841777038459954Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:35:00 +00002009-12-08T22:43:47.850-08:00Here are the updates regarding a few things that I have been working on.The State Information Commission had ordered that DVAC, which was exempted from the act, still has to give corruption related information. As expected, DVAC has challenged this decision in the High Court, and the HC has given an interim stay and will hear the case after 8 weeks. This has been mentioned today in the Times. I http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/OD_vFc7sG6g/few-updates-dvac-ias-officers-assets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/OD_vFc7sG6g" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/12/few-updates-dvac-ias-officers-assets.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-8406905641410685329Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:09:00 +00002009-11-24T23:20:42.650-08:00A quick (and delayed) update. As mentioned before in this blog before, some of us has filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court seeking transparent appointment of Chief Central Information Commissioner. The Delhi HC dismissed this case saying that though the cause was good, the HC does not have the powers.HC declines to issue direction for appointment of CICHC: Can't ask govt to frame rules for CIC http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/4dqo3pGYqy0/delhi-hc-dismisses-pil-on-appointment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/4dqo3pGYqy0" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/11/delhi-hc-dismisses-pil-on-appointment.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-4077547512042508206Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:08:00 +00002009-11-24T22:46:16.773-08:00Day before yesterday I went to the State Information Commission to meet the Registrar. He had been promising that he would initiate follow-up of Show Cause Notices. I have been pushing this for close to 6 months now, and finally the process has started. Till Thursday about 32 cases where show cause notices were issued previously were followed up on. The Registrar showed me a case where the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/6FKC7hqe5Tk/follow-up-of-show-cause-notices-finally.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/6FKC7hqe5Tk" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/11/follow-up-of-show-cause-notices-finally.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-5891683458612647972Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:12:00 +00002009-11-18T02:22:39.425-08:00The Delhi High Court PIL that we had filed on the initiative of Rao of Mumbai was up for hearing today. It was eventually dismissed. But given below are our arguments, as compiled by Krishnaraj are as below. This note was prepared by contributions majorly from Krishnaraj and Suni Ahya, another RTI activist from Mumbai. This lays out why it is that arbitrary appointment of Information http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/HDMQW-qN_fM/arguments-for-delhi-hc-case.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/HDMQW-qN_fM" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/11/arguments-for-delhi-hc-case.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-6217341198087660861Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:25:00 +00002009-11-07T22:28:47.762-08:00and how the Judge had me taken to a Police Station for my daring to question it. Here is a gist of my experience yesterday, part of which was being detained at a Police Station for close to 4 hours. It is interesting on many fronts: The powers that Judges wield, how they cannot stand somebody questioning them, the way Police bend over backwards for Judiciary, how wonderfully supportive people http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/fAx4eOAmWnw/how-rti-exposed-judge-violating.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/fAx4eOAmWnw" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-rti-exposed-judge-violating.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-5019907321148845860Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +00002009-11-14T03:28:39.293-08:00The Chief Central Information Commissioner Mr.Wajahat Habibullah, had resigned sometime back so that he can take up the post of the State Information Commissioner for Jammu and Kashmir, which has now got its own Right to Information act, which is heavily based on the National RTI act. (Though not relevant to this post, I would like to point out here, that one important feature of the J&K RTI act http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/wIE_2cspSpk/chief-cic-appointment-pil-in-delhi-high.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/wIE_2cspSpk" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/11/chief-cic-appointment-pil-in-delhi-high.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-2233301355625885430Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:57:00 +00002009-10-21T23:12:44.856-07:00National RTI awards is an Arvind Kejriwal led initiative, to honour the best user of RTI, best PIO and best Information Commissioner in India. For the award of the best Information Commissioner the team analysed more than 50,000 decisions from all the Information Commissions of India. For TN the team studied decisions after taking them from the website of the TN SIC. But in TN, there is the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/5YO_aSpwCak/tn-information-commission-left-out-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/5YO_aSpwCak" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/10/tn-information-commission-left-out-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-3023821696433557179Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:57:00 +00002009-10-13T22:04:07.332-07:00A quick update. And it is a bad news. The PIL I had filed in the Madras High Court, regarding non-adherence to MLA assets disclosure resolution was dismissed in the High Court yesterday. The details are present in the media articles given below.http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/14/stories/2009101460110900.htmhttp://tinyurl.com/yjwvsxphttp://tinyurl.com/yftxn8sI havent yet received a copy of the order.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/oM7Aq87DO_I/hc-dismisses-pil-reg-mlas-assets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/oM7Aq87DO_I" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/10/hc-dismisses-pil-reg-mlas-assets.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-3668909525160692949Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:15:00 +00002009-10-13T02:26:50.463-07:00Please refer to the following two posts for the background work I did on MLAs assets disclsoure.http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2008/11/assets-disclosure-by-mlas-mlcs-and.htmlhttp://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/02/it-has-been-close-to-1.htmlAs mentioned in the last line of the second post given above, a PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court asking the High Court to direct the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/trR69lIBi_4/pil-in-madras-high-court-reg-mlas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/trR69lIBi_4" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/10/pil-in-madras-high-court-reg-mlas.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-8719934049922150758Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:37:00 +00002009-10-05T23:54:51.078-07:00Finally, after orders from the State Information Commission, the Tamil Nadu Government today appointed a Public Information Officer to the Chief Minister's Office. I received a copy of the order which appointed the PIO. This appoints an officer of the Public Department as the Appellate Authority of the CMO. I do not know how legally sound this is, but that there is at least a designated PIO and http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/Rr_scFrHb6k/finally-cmo-gets-pio.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/Rr_scFrHb6k" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/10/finally-cmo-gets-pio.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-1704911452062623847Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:29:00 +00002009-09-24T16:32:35.558-07:00There was an order passed at a hearing hearing yesterday (24th September 2009) at the SIC, which in effect brings DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption) back under RTI, in spite of the GO No.158 by P&AR which exempted it more than a year back. This is what happened. I have talked about it here and here.Close to a month after DVAC was exempted, I filed an RTI application with the DVAChttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/3lVSp1PhKFs/good-news-about-dvac.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/3lVSp1PhKFs" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/09/good-news-about-dvac.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-6953350512373028426Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:26:00 +00002009-09-18T02:11:44.180-07:00I was trying to get some information from the SIC regarding their staffing problems. I had asked for the number of vacancies there, and the communication between them and the Government regarding staff requirement. The information I received showed that there are 4 sanctioned posts in the Information Commission which have not been filled by the government. Also repeated letters from the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/FBJDPSDNBcc/some-quick-updates.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/FBJDPSDNBcc" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/09/some-quick-updates.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29142210.post-3347629950350928877Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:08:00 +00002009-09-24T16:29:05.542-07:00In February 2009, I had filed an RTI application seeking inspection of assets disclosure statements of the last 5 years of the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the secretaries of 9 other departments. This was rejected citing 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information act, 2005, which says that"there shall be no obligation to give any citizen information which relates to personal information the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~3/LMTpWapaSoA/asset-disclosure-of-ias-officers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (V Madhav)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ADropInAnOcean/~4/LMTpWapaSoA" height="1" width="1"/>http://adropinanocean.blogspot.com/2009/09/asset-disclosure-of-ias-officers.html