IF YOU are an Indian bureaucrat with a mindset that everything is manageable, think twice. The Right To Information (RTI) tool is now increasingly used to extract information on what you write on files, say in internal meetings, and now even what you get free at the cost of the exchequer. And yes, you cannot un-mute your anger against the RTI Act, which is incidentally packaged as an achievement by the current UPA government.
As was reported in a national newspaper a couple of days before, an RTI application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal revealed how the definition of family has been expanded over the years for the purpose of getting free tickets.
No wonder, according to rules, CMD’s “spouse, children, parents, brothers, sisters, son-in-law/daughter-in-law” are eligible for such free tickets, and he could even expand the family to include virtually any relative for free travel on “compassionate grounds.”
The RTI findings have further revealed the number of free tickets availed by some of the previous Air India chiefs. As the national carrier is mounting losses and is virtually on bankruptcy, the rule of doling out free tickets to any one and everyone of the CMD’s family is bound to be under scrutiny.
Significantly, it’s a post held by a senior civil servant. The current CMD Arvind Jadhav is a 1978 batch IAS.
Disclaimer: The picture used here is symbolic, not real.
Straight From Files
Know Your Babu: Arvind Jadhav, IAS (May 4, 2009)
Brinda Karat’s use of RTI to obtain what additional secretary Mayaram said (September 28, 2009)
IAS turned politician dies
Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP lost a prized member recently when former IAS officer Hoshiar Singh died after a brief illness at a hospital in Bhopal. After his retirement from over three decades long administrative work, this 1976 batch MP cadre IAS joined the BJP recently. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in his condolence message said that the state lost a finest administrative officer.
Read what noted journalist Vir Sangvi wrote on last Sunday. He says it was Morarji Desai who created the problem for Air India by sacking JRD Tata from chairman's position.
ReplyDeleteHe also argues that the only way to save Air India now is to privatise it. Maybe it makes sense in the current circumstances.