IAS officer uses RTI to know his job

[ganpat1956]

Tuesday April 17 2007 00:00 IST
<SMALL>BANGALORE: A senior IAS officer who was given six different postings during the past six months has invoked the Right to Information (RTI) Act to know what the government expected from him.

MD of Mysore Lamps, M N Vijayakumar, has no salary, supporting staff or official car as he heads a sick company.

At the time of posting, his terms of deputation were not specified. Vijaykumar had sought the clarification under RTI from Commerce and Industries Department and from Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, but to no avail.

He finally appealed before Karnataka Information Commission which on Friday ordered the government to comply with his demand by Friday.

In September 2006, Vijaykumar was posted as regional commissioner of Gulbarga and as principal secretary to minorities department on October 26, 2006, before sending him back to Gulbarga on October 27.

On February 3, 2007 Vijaykumar was posted as Bangalore regional commissioner again to be transferred as principal secretary to department of public enterprises on February 24. Interestingly this decision too was reversed before he could take charge. He was finally posted as MD Mysore Lamps.

As Bangalore Regional Commissioner, Vijaykumar had formulated a scheme where the citizen could have access to the files through web cameras. He was transferred just a day before the scheme was to be launched. In his complaint, he has also said that he faces threat to his life.</SMALL>
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[Putti]

nice to read , but not to suffer .. even i too read .. !!!
but y they did like that ?

[Latha Ramesh]

Originally Posted by ganpat1956

Tuesday April 17 2007 00:00 IST
<SMALL>As Bangalore Regional Commissioner, Vijaykumar had formulated a scheme where the citizen could have access to the files through web cameras. He was transferred just a day before the scheme was to be launched. In his complaint, he has also said that he faces threat to his life.</SMALL>
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Ganpat Ji,
When someone mentions in his complaint that he is facing threat to his life, does this not come under "Life and liberty" case and has to replied within 3 days?

[ganpat1956]

From the press report, we have no way of knowing if "the threat to his life" is related exclusively to provision of information alone, in which case, a speedier reply within three days can be invoked. But obviously there is something more to it, than what has been published in press. If the real story behind this officer's suffering comes out, more skeletons in the cupboard might be revealed.

[karira]

Makes me feel a bit better today !
I am not the only one stressed out by babudom.
Even babus give me company.
OMG, the ways of this government......

[karira]

Honest MD deterred to enter factory in Karnataka
PT Bopanna | Bangalore
... while Mallika shoots inside

It may sound strange that Bollywood siren Mallika Sharavat has no problem in entering the premises of a Government factory in Bangalore, but its doors are closed to the Managing Director of the factory, who happens to be a senior IAS officer.
On Monday the Managing Director of the government-owned Mysore Lamps MN Vijay Kumar was barred entry to the factory by the security guards. However, he held the 'board meeting' of the factory on the roadside, outside the factory premises.


The problem with Vijay Kumar, who holds the rank of a Principal Secretary to the Government, is that he is a whistleblower and exposes corruption in the departments where he is posted.



Consequently, he has been transferred half a dozen times in the past six months from one post to another.


Presently, he has been made the Managing Director of Mysore Lamps, a factory under closure. Vijay Kumar has not been told about his responsibilities or about the other members of the board of directors of the factory.


This has not deterred him one bit. He has sought details under the Right to Information Act (RTI) on his responsibilities.



He is not alone in his fight, as his wife Jayashree too has joined him in fighting corruption in the bureaucracy. She has sought details under the RTI on the assets of some of the IAS officers. Jayashree has blamed State Chief Secretary PB Mahishi for her husband's plight. She added: "The corrupt people in the system want him to quit the job. They made him the Managing Director of a defunct company, denied vehicle and salary. Now, they are preventing him, the MD, from entering the factory."



When he arrived at the factory on Monday, the employees of the defunct factory were there to receive him, outside the gate. Vijay Kumar discussed with the employees steps that could be taken by the Government to revive Mysore Lamps, once a profit-making public sector undertaking.
It is learnt that Vijay Kumar later lodged a complaint with the Yeshwantpur Police against the Chief Secretary for preventing him from discharging his official duties.

Some of the employees were quoted as saying that Bollywood star Mallika Sharavat was allowed to shoot for a film in the factory premises sometime ago, but the MD was being prevented entry.
It is time for the authorities to wake up against the issues raised by IAS officers, instead of trying to treat him like an untouchable.

[neeraj Chauhan]

hi everybody ,

[neeraj Chauhan]

hi everybody ,
I just fail to understand how one can stop anybody from drawing salary and other official obligations as i know everything is decided under norms for a particular level rank officers of Govt. ANY way it is a height of bureaucracy and unbelievable. See you later
Nick Chauhan

[karira]

IAS officer's wife wages RTI battle


Bangalore: An IAS officer and his wife are fighting back against corruption, demanding their Right To Information after six transfers this year.

Six transfers in as many months; IAS officer M N Vijaykumar has been through hell. And all the while his wife Jayashree stood with him. She even opened a website to expose the corrupt practices within the Karnataka Government. Their efforts prompted the Lok Ayukta to order the chief secretary to respond to Vijayakumar's application under the Right to Information Act by June 27.

Vijayakumar had asked for reasons behind his frequent transfers. The reply is yet to come, but he has got another letter from chief secretary P B Mahishi. The government has asked him to close the website run by his wife, and hints at legal action if he doesn't fall in line.

"They are questioning why I've opened a website? They say I've done it on the behest of my husband. They are ignoring my entity. They said I cannot do anything till I disassociate from my husband," says Jayashree, Vijaykumar's wife, who opened 'Fight Corruption', the website to wage her husband's battle.

Jayashree approached the women's commission which has directed the chief secretary to appear for a hearing on Monday. When contacted, Mahishi refused to comment on the issue. Jayashree, on her part, insists that the website is more than a way of showing her support to her husband.

"Our focus is in bringing good governance to Karnataka. We are fighting to that end," insists Jayashree.

The RTI Act was instituted to ensure the common man's right to information. But when it's the very right that is questioned, then there's scant little that the common man can do.


IAS officer's wife wages RTI battle : IAS, karnataka government, transfer, right to information : IBNLive.com : CNN-IBN

[karira]

As reported on mangalorean.com on 09 April 2008:
Mangalorean.Com- Serving Mangaloreans Around The World!

Wife seeks hubby's suspension to 'protect'

Bangalore, April 9 (IANS) A senior Karnataka Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer's wife has made an "abnormal" request to Governor Rameshwar Thakur - suspend him from service as he is facing threat to his life.

"I know this is an abnormal request. But I have no other option as the government refuses to grant him leave, if he gives the real reason - threat to his life," J.N. Jayashree, wife of M.N. Vijayakumar, administrator, Command Area Development Authority in Belgaum, about 500 km from Bangalore, told IANS Wednesday.

Vijayakumar is known for his fight against corruption in the government.

Jayashree, a mother with two sons, runs a website "fightcorruption.wikidot.com" and frequently uses the Right to Information Act as part of her support to her husband.

She wrote to Thakur April 3 that there were at least two threats to Vijayakumar's life and she fears for him as he is alone at Belgaum.

In a letter to state Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao in the last week of March, Jayashree said her husband was unconscious for five hours December 27 last year due to wrong medication and none of the senior officials in Belgaum bothered to assist him even after she called them from Bangalore.

"I have already written in my mail dated Feb 14 the danger my husband could face because of wrong diagnosis of his medical condition. (In this regard also I want to personally inform about how this wrong diagnosis could have been used for harming my husband)," she said in the letter to the chief secretary.

"He has not even been given government accommodation," said Jayashree.
"I cannot be with him as our younger son is studying pre-university course in Bangalore and now that elections (to the state assembly) have been announced, my husband will not get a transfer. Hence, the abnormal request," she said. The couple's elder son is pursuing PhD in the US.

Vijayakumar, a 1981 batch officer, has been transferred seven times in seven months between Sep 2006 and March 2007.

"My husband has seven more years of service left. He does not want to quit or take voluntary retirement. He will stay in service and we will fight corruption from within the system," said Jayashree.

Asked how can any governor act on such a request, Jayashree said: "I have no other option. As a wife, I have to protect my husband. Hence, I have made such a strange request," she said.

Jayashree said she has not yet received any reply from the governor's office to her letter. "I will wait for some more time before thinking of what other steps I can take to ensure my husband's safety," she added.

[taurus]

This is the stark reality. This is the price one has to pay for fighting corruption. But ultimately truth will always prevail. Sathyameva Jayethe.

[opsharma]

M N Vijaykumar,being an honest IAS officer and intolerant of bureaucratic corruption,belongs to an extinct species.