Some of us here wanted to know more about the Lokayukta office than what the newspapers tell us. Once the excitement of raids and big names get over, we rarely get to know the closure of those cases. So why not ask Lokayukta on a regular basis? Here is what we asked via an RTI application to start with:
- For the period October 2008 to December 2008 details of officials (including name, designation and office of work at the time of investigation, current designation and office of work) against whom the Lok Ayuktha has sought permission from the Government of Karnataka (and/or Government of India) for prosecution.
- Against how many of these requests has the government responded?
- What have been the government's reasonings where sanctions have been denied?
- What is the legal status of cases where sanction has been denied?
- What action has been taken by Lokayukta in cases where the sanction has been granted?
Why did we ask these questions? Because, we were told by many, including Justic Hegde himself that in most cases, they don't get the permission to prosecute from the government. Moreover, we would want to know what action Lokayukta's office takes once they get the permission.
Well, must say that the reply was a bit disappointing. All the cases are in "pending investigation" status :( Sanction for prosecution (the jargon is PSO) was sought in only 1 out of total 73 raid and trap cases during Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan.
Here is the scanned RTI reply with status of 73 cases.
Needless to say, we should have known that these cases take time before they reach a stage where PSO would be sought. We will send in a new application asking specifically for last 10 cases where Justic Hegde has asked for PSO.
And even more needless to say, if you want to join in these Lokayukta RTI projects, please drop us a message to get connected with the members working on this project. More the merrier. And mind you, we are not doing any investigative or dangerous work here, but just working to bring out information already available with the office of Lokayukta.
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Comments
What's the process?
I highly commend the Praja's efforts to dig some facts from Lokayukta. Hope this journey continues.
Anybody know what is the process that Lokayukta would take from start to finish. That may explain the stages in detail which could help the petitioners to file for further refined information.
Syed
time to get reply
See the information on Gyan Pages!
sanjayv,
Answer your questions are available on Praja's Gyan section @ http://praja.in/gyan/how-does-right-information-works.
They are bound to reply within 30 days.
Syed
Is Lok Ayuktha Trying to Hide Information ?
Current posting?
There are no details of the current designation of these officials. Does it imply that these officials are continuing in the same post? Shouldn't they be suspended till investigation is completed?
Less than 1% punished
Less than 1% of Lokayukta cases end up in verified punishments. Even though there is wide coverage of Lokayukta raids, government agencies hardly act against employees found to be corrupt by Lokayukta. This was found through a IIJNM student's RTI application.
This was reported in yesterday's TOI.
Muralidhar Rao
Time for next set of RTIs
Replies to the first RTI were so disappointing that we sort of lost steam to pursue the next one. Let us try again.
Anyone game to help out? Need to frame the right questions to know what happens after the raids etc.
Wonder what the IIJNM student asked. At least in the RTI reply we got, Lokayukta had not sought permission to prosecute in most of the cases. All (except 1 or 2 if I remember right) cases are in "pending investigation" state.
Where does it get stuck - govt stalls it, or does LA office itself not have enough resources to pursue each and every case to closure?
This would be an exciting RTI. Though I get a feeling that a local newspaper may beat us to it. either way, we win - all we want is quality info in public domain :)
Article 311
It appears that there is a move to reconsider the provisions protecting civil servants from prosecution. I hope they really do it and move fast.
news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx