Ignorance of public information officer

The president of "Right Thinking Indians Association" Durg district of Chhattisgarh has sought information & document under the RTI ACt, 2005 from Chief Medical Officer, Durg. Since the RTI Applicant is BPL card holder, he has sought exemption from Application fees but the Public Information officer of CMO office has given the reply that BPL card says about getting ration from Govt and he is required to pay Rs 10/- as Application fees. The Association understands that the PIO is either avoiding the RTI Application in a wicked style or is quite ignorant of the RTI Rules. Anyway, a scanned copy of Section 7(5) of the RTI Act downloaded from the website of CIC, New Delhi is hereby uploaded for the knowledge of intellectually poor PIO. Of course, a copy will be provided to the 1st Appellate Authority while filing the Appeal.

how to change India?

I see in facebook daily postings of good sayings, religious sermons and also valuable words of social activists and political leaders. The natural question arises as in spite of all these things why no such change is coming? The answer what it seems to me is that in fact everybody is saying from his / her throat and nobody is speaking from his /her heart. The result is there is no force in the words and no force and real feelings in the voice. The radar fitted in every human being is catching the false words and so no action.
For example, a powerful person came to our every sunday's coffee house sitting and talked in a very very loud voice about the national problems. The result is that what we are developing from 2 years i.e a serious feelings and responsibility towards our society and country by resorting to implementation of  RTI Act was immediately disturbed. This is exactly happening every hour, every day and all over the country. The Constructive thoughts are being destroyed by some useless elements but the tragedy is that they think themselves useful. The complexity arises that they are so capable and shrewd that they can create sympathizer  & friends immediately. One can fight against an enemy but it is difficult to fight a friend who acts like a friend but his activities are like an enemy.

Public audit by Public of India

The Right Thinking Indians Association has sought information & document pertaining to statutory Audit Report for the year 2010-11 & 2011-12 pertaining to  the Durg Municipality of Chhattisgarh under the RTI Act, 2005. Now, it will be clear whether the AGCG has done the Audit work for the year 2010-11 & 2011-12 or not. We will examine the points raised by Audit and the action taken by the Durg Municipality on such points raised by Au

dit.

Public Participation in Govt Mchinery

The Right Thinking Indians Association president of Durg District has information about Accountant General of Chhattisgarh Report for the last 2 years i.e & 2010-11 & 2011-12. We want to see whether the statutory audit report is being implemented by Govt Authorities or not. The RTI Application pertaining to Tandula Irrigation project is uploaded for public viewing. The public is encouraged to give similar Applications in other Departments to about the working of the Govt machinery.

Payment of Service Tax by Raipur Parties of NRDA, Chhattisgarh

The Right Thinking Indians Association, Raipur, CG has information about payment of Service Tax made by service providers in NRDA project of Chhattisgarh under the RTIAct. The DGST Mumabi has circulated the RTI letter to Central Excise & Service Tax formations of India. The payment of Service Tax by Raipur parties i.e M/s Dewakirti Associates & Pilliwar Assocaites is hereby uploaded in the website & shared with facebook. 

In the second phase, we will seek information & document from NRDA regarding value of Services i.e the amount paid by NRDA (Naya Raipur Development Authority) and will compare the Service Tax paid by the parties. The Association has a strong & reasonable belief that only a small amount of Service Tax has been paid by the parties. 

Hiding of payment of Service Tax is a Trade secret of Govt Officer(!)

The "Right Thinking Indians Association" Raipur Chhattisgarh has sought information and document about service tax payment position about service providers of NRDA (Naya Raipur Development Authority) project, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The CPIO of Central Excise, Ahmadabad has denied information on the ground that the information related is of commercial confidence and trade secret of the third party. The III rd party here as per CPIO means M/s Datta & Datta Associates, Ahmadabad. The question arises when a citizen of India wants to know about the amount service tax paid in a project of a State, how it can construed that it is commercial confidence. It is obvious that either no Service Tax has been paid by the said favored party namely M/s Datta & Datta Associates, Ahmadabad or less Service Tax has been paid. In all probability, the Govt officer has been awarded and now the CPIO has undertaken the self imposed responsibility to protect such parties, otherwise there is no such necessity to deny information which is kept in Govt office and lying with Govt Authorities. We are not asking about any Trade secrets of a party. We are simply asking about whether the party working in NRDA project is registered with Central Excise Department or not and secondly whether Service Tax has been paid or not. In case the same has been paid , the amount of Service Tax paid.

The RTI Act, 2005 has been framed to bring transparency and accountability, to contain corruption and  finally for setting out a practical regime of "right to information"  but here the CPIO, Shriman R.M Gautam, the Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise, Ahmadabad, it is a trade secret. In one way, he is right(!) Giving protection money & taking protection money has already become a trade and the Govt officer is not willing to share his secrets with the public. 

We are thankful to the DGST, Mumbai to circulate our RTI Application all over India as the service providers are spread all over India. We are appealing against this wrong decision of CPIO as we are determined for development of our country.

Service providers of NRDA, Chhattisgarh

We have sought information about service tax payment position of Service providers of Naya Raipur Development Authority of Chhattisgarh. One information has been received that M/s Holistic Urban Innovations, Noida has paid Rs 5/6 thousand of Service Tax. The Service providers of NRDA has provided at least Rs 50 lakhs of Service. The value of Service downloaded from the website of Chhattisgarh is available. It seems ridiculous that Service Tax @ 12.36% on lakhs of Rupees comes to Rs 5/6 thousand per year. The exact analysis will be uploaded in the official website of "Right Thinking Indians Association" Raipur, CG and simultaneous complaint will be made to DGST, Mumbai, DG Vigilance and CBI.