India Political Blog

Slowly, one can see a greater use of the RTI Act. The RTI Act had been pushed for long as the means to allow citizens to get openness from the bureaucracy (seen for long as a place where things were slow, and where citizens would always have to suffer). The RTI Act was meant to let citizens get information on just about any query under the sun (subject some state secrets, and some commercial secrets). It has been going through fits and starts, with many bemoaning the fact that the babudom is trying their best to thwart the implementation of the law; but as the below examples show, the Act is actually doing good in many cases. People are able to request information, and if the concerned official does not provide the information, then there are provisions of fines being levies for this non-compliance:

PATNA: State information commissioner Mohd Shakeel Ahmad, has imposed a fine of Rs 250 per day with a maximum of Rs 25,000 each against deputy collector, land reforms, Rajgir, and the circle officer of Rajgir for not providing information to an applicant, Sanjay Kumar, seeking information under the provision of Right to Information Act.

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Speak to people who have bought flats when they are being newly constructed, and one of the chief problems quoted is that the builder would make alterations in the building plan for his benefit and get away with it. The flat owners would not be able to say much since the change in building plan would get passed by the local Municipal authorities. So, for example, I know of a case where a builder was going to make the ground floor be a parking floor by providing stilts; instead the builder changed the plans such that a new set of 4 flats were constructed on the ground floor and the flat owners were not able to say a thing since the new plan had been passed by the Municipal Corporation and that was what the builder showed some of the flat owners who tried complaining. A reason why the builders are able to do that is because the fine is low, and many times they are able to get these changes done through their influence in the Municipal corporation. Well, the Patna Municipal Corporation wants to penalize builders who do such changes.

The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to tighten the noose around builders who have deviated from the approved building maps while executing their project. PMC board recently passed a proposal which will allow the corporation to impose additional fine over the existing one imposed in accordance with the building by-laws, in the event of any deviation from the approved building design. The fine would be five times the amount charged for deviation.
The deviation in building designs has become quite a common practice among builders as there were in-built provisions in the existing rules condoning deviations up to 20 per cent by charging a fine on the builders.

Such a move would be real helpful to the owners who bought flats based on the original plan. Individually they are not able to have any influence on the builder who has all the right connections.

At some point of time, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the premier investigating agency of the country and the main federal such body will get the kick from the Supreme Court that it so badly needs in order to its job independently and without political influence. Currently the CBI reports to the Department of Personnel, and hence is extremely open to influence. In theory, the CBI works under its director and evaluates each case on its merits, but a review of many recent cases shows the kind of joke this concept is: The acquittal of Shibu Soren, the one/off investigation of Mayawati in the Taj Corridor case, the dismal performance in the Bofors / Quattrochi case, and the current issue about the Disproportionate assets case against Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife:
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When do we get to a situation where normal people, get worked up enough to form a mob and then proceed to pummel, beat, thrash, or use other means of harming or killing somebody who is supposed to have been a thief ? Well, if people could find an answer, they could prevent what seems to be happening in Bihar. In yet another another incident of a supposed criminal having been beaten up by a mob and killed in a frenzy, 2 people were beaten to death after becoming the target of a mob.

Superintendent of Police (city), Anwar Hussain, said the lynching of the two men took place at Nutan Colony under Sultanganj police station last night after news spread that three persons were robbing passersby. The trio was then chased by a crowd. One of them jumped into a pond to save himself but he was pulled out and bludgeoned to death with sticks, iron rods and whatever the mob could lay its hands on.
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This seems to be happening more and more. Lynch mobs are ready to dole out instant justice, without worrying about any law or judicial process. Refer this article:

A mob was waiting for the three and they were dragged off the stolen motorcycle as soon as they appeared, fisted and kicked before their eyes were pierced and gouged out with a sharp tool, the Sirdala police station officer in-charge Manoj Kumar said.

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Anything our politicians do is usually highlighted, and normally very reasonably. It is very easy to believe that our politicians are arrogant, act as if they know best, don’t care about other people, treat everybody else as their servants, and overall are a pain. Well, if you wanted confirmation, here’s confirmation. When Laloo Prasad was using an IAF helicopter for looking at villagers affected by flood, although he is the railway minister and not the home minister or the Bihar chief minister (although doing flood surveys and pretending to care looks very good on TV). And then what happened? Disregarding all norms regarding landing helicopters on places other than a helipad, and without an obvious need (such as delivering supplies, or dropping a doctor, or picking up injured people), he ordered the helicopter to land.
Obviously, in a heavily political sceanrio, such a violation of rules cannot stand, and hence a worker from another party filed a complaint that he was damaged by the sudden landing of the helicopter (could be easily true as well, a helicopter is a heavy machinery and also creates a massive down draft, especially helicopters used by the air force). And what does our embarrassed railway minister do ? He tried to shift the blame to the poor pilots:
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