Letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary on false allegation on RTI application

Letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary on false allegations on RTI application by Dr. Arun Jamkar, Dean BJMC and Sassoon Hospital and Ganesh Bardare, PIO, BJMC
Pune, Friday, July 10, 2009
To:
Mr. Johny Joseph
Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra
Mumbai – 400 032
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Dear Mr. Joseph, Greetings,

I would like to place this letter on record for the attention of the Chief Minister, Mr. Ashok Chavan, your goodself and Dr. Bhushan Gagrani, the Medical Education Department Secretary, relating to the contempt of the Right to Information Act 2005 by Dr. Arun Jamkar, the Dean of BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital in Pune as also by Mr. Ganesh Baradare, the Chief Administrative Office, both the First Appellate Authority and State Public Information Officer.

As a senior journalist of 40 long years of standing in local, regional, national and international electronic and print media, I am shocked to learn about the baseless and unfounded allegations that both of these have leveled against me for the use of RTI during the visit of Dr. Gagrani to the institution and hospital today (10 July 2009).

In line with my long journalistic career, I would like to state here that several governors, chief ministers, state and central ministers, bureaucrats, police officers, local, regional and national level politicians, including several international leaders that have known me, can vouch of my blunt attitude. Not a single of these can believe that I had ever indulged in negative criticism. All throughout my career in India and abroad, I had always thought it a honor and pride to work for humanity and fight corruption. So, the allegations of the Dean Dr. Arun Jamkar to Dr. Gagrani that filing of my RTI applications was part of some kind of harassment, is totally fabricated, false and outright a charge that cannot be proven.

Sir, 40 years in my field has been a long journey. I had the honor to be the only Indian journalist to cover the Gulf War and be night and day on all the international TV networks and a constant face on the Larry King live show of CNN during the Gulf War. To accuse, a person with false allegations, which cannot be proven, against a person who has played a key role in the Maharashtra Right to Information Act 2002, is painful, particularly from Dr. Jamkar. Either he proves the charge, or he offers and unconditional apology.

Sir, many of the chief ministers including the late Shankarao Chavan, father of the present chief minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr. A.R. Antulay, etc, have been my personal and close friends. Several of the IAS officers, some retired as Chief Secretaries, and some presently serving in different posts as Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners, Collectors, many of them being sons of my friends, can vouch of my credibility. Even more IPS officers like the present DGP Mr. SS Virk, former DGP, AN Roy, Mumbai police commissioner D.Shivandan, Additional Director General of Police State CID, Mr. SPS Yadav, are also the few among the many who will speak of my credibility and integrity.

Sir, Dr. Jamkar and his PIO, should first read the very first para of the preamble of the RTI Act. 2005. The very first paragraph of the preamble states that the law was made to usher in transparency and accountability in governance and to contain corruption. This very simple law is not understood till today by Dr. Jamkar and his staff though the law is now more than six years old.

Sir, my foremost objective to use the act is totally in line of serving the people to whom the law is a powerful weapon vested by the federal government. It is the Citizen’s right to seek information for which the law was made. The learned fails to understand that the rights given by the law to the people cannot be throttled, curbed or obstructed, which would defeat the very purpose for which it is ushered in for the people.

The RTI law has been very successfully used by bureaucrats in Maharashtra and in the country. A senior diplomat Ms. Bhaduri had used it when she was denied the post of the foreign secretary. Principal Secretary (GAD) of Maharashtra Ms. Leena Mehandale had used it against the Pune Municipal Corporation and has a blog site, Addl. Collector Prahlad Kachare has been using it, besides political leaders like Ramdas Kadam, Gopinath Munde and several others, not to speak of professors from the Government hospital, like from Aurangabad against its dean Dr. Anand Malik, who also served in Pune, and who was penalized by the Information Commission, by way of his pension being stopped. There are many cases, which I can cite.

But I am surprised at the way Dr. Jamkar and his team are trying to scuttle the attempts of RTI activists like me, Advocate Saleem Shaikh, noted activist Vihar Durve, and few from the hospital itself.

Sir, I had observed utmost restraint so far to speak out against the negative aspects of Dr. Jamkar and the CAO Mr. Ganesh Bardare. And I am sorry to state that both of them are a total misfit in their posts. These two are more of an liability than an asset to the institution and hospital. Their administrative skills exhibit their incompetence and expose their inability to provide a good administration.

I know that a senior NCP minister has been allergic to the Dean and did not want him posted back here. It is pathetic that Dr. Arun Jamkar should be posted back in Pune after serving here for more than 28 years, which is against the policy of the government as well against the spirits of ‘Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act, 2005’’. I am not aware, but heard that Dr. Jamkar had managed to get back with the help of Dr. Wasudeo Tayade, the Director of DMER and with political help from the Chief Minister. If this is true, then this again defeats the purpose of the law for which social activist Anna Hazare had so aggressively worked hard.

Sir, despite rebuke from the Information Commission, Dr.Arun Jamkar and Bardare had been showing all contempt to the law. Several of my RTI applications have not been responded despite the verbal orders of the Commission to dispose it off. It has been merry go round for me on my applications filed as back as February 2009. Several of the decisions are just ‘funny’ which exhibits the non application of mind of both the FAA and the PIO, for which even the Commission has pulled them up.

Vague, evasive, misleading, incomplete, incorrect and false information is given in some cases. In a case relating to land to a NGO, the files are missing, as officially informed to me. Yet, despite several decisions by the CIC and SIC, that FIR should be lodged, the FAA and PIO are sitting on the issue, without taking any action. This attitude gives apprehensions that the Dean is trying to protect and shield those officials who were incharge of the files. If the government can take action on the missing files in the RTI issue raised by Opposition leader Ramdas Kadam or the UP government handing the case of missing files to the CBI in the Babri Masjid case, what had prevented the Dean from filing a case of missing files for the past six months?

Sir, my whole contention of filing RTI applications is to get to the roots of the several scams and scandals and financial irregularities that have taken place in the BJ Medical College and Sassoon Hospital. My purpose is also to go deep into the vast corruption that is prevailing here. The objective is to bring out the skeltons from the cupboard. It is rightly to demand transparency and accountability and to root out corruption.

The Dean should know well, that the institution and the hospital is public property and not the fiefdom of anybody. It belongs to the people and the state. Seeking information to dig out corruption and financial irregularities is not harassment. Public money is not for laundering.

Honorable minister for finance Mr. Dilip Walse-Patil, had earmarked several crores for the upgradation of the Sassoon Hospital, yet machines meant for the benefit of the people are gathering dust, and the crores going waste on these machines. Cold storage boxes in the Forensic medicine tendered for Blue Star has been faked and substandard cold storage boxes worth crores bunked in for which the original Blue Star is not willing to maintain. The funds for CET provided by the government has several financial irregularities. Action is not taken against the Deputy Supdt, for providing wrong, misleading and incorrect information despite the orders of the Commission. No action is taken against the Deputy Supdt, for unauthorizedly issuing age certificates despite being warned by the Deputy Secretary of the Medical Education Department.

Sir, in some of the cases cited above, and in the interest of the institution and the hospital, you can see, that Dr. Arun Jamkar had mislead and provided false information and made unproven allegations against me to Dr. Bhushan Gagrani, and this cannot be taken lightly. When I praise Dr. Jamkar, he likes it and when a healthy criticism is made, he jumps the gun and goes wild with allegations. His double standards attitude has created lots of confusion and unrest among the medical fraternity, the people, and in the politicians, not to speak of journalists.

In the interest of the maintaining harmony, and preventing any unrest, and for the sake of better administration and image of the government, institution, hospital and RTI law, I think it would be better if Dr. Arun Jamkar and the CAO Ganesh Bardare are moved out of Pune and some better people replace them.

Sir, last but not the least, if Dr. Jamkar does not apologize and put forth the truthful facts to you and Dr. Gagrani, then I would consider the option of filing a Writ in the Bombay High Court to protect my dignity and credibility.

Thanks and regards,
Shahid Raza Burney
Senior Journalist and
Founder Member Hum Janenge RTI Discussion Board,