Applicants for the post of State Information Commissioners in APIC

We have filed a RTI to know the names of the applications who have applied for the post of State Information Commissioners in APIC. Please find below the reply from Govt of AP

NAMES OF THE APPLICANTS FOR THE POST OF STATE INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS IN A.P.INFORMATION COMMISSION

S.No	Name & Designation
	Smt. Asha .Murthy, IAS,(Retd.)
	Sri K. Tuljanand Singh
	Smt. V.N.L.Sailaja,
	Sri M.Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy,
	Sri G. Narendranath, IAS (Retd.)
	Smt. Duvvuri .Sailendra,
	Sri G.N.Rao, I.A.S. (Retd.)
	Sri K. Sahadeva Reddy,
	Sri Srinivas Madhav
	Sri P. Sundara Kumar, IAS (Retd.)
	Sri Madhav Vishnu Bhatta,
	Sri G. Ramanarayana Reddy, IAS (Retd.)
	Sri V. Gangadhar Rao,
	Sri S. Sivaram,
	Sri Ch. Narendra
	Sri D. Chakra Pani, IAS
	Sri C.Chandra sekhar
	Sri K.Mangapathi Rao, IAS (Retd)
	Sri S. Ramananda Swamy
	Sri Varre Venkateshwarlu
	Sri G. Gopi Krishna Chaithanya
	Sri T.Sundara Ramaiah
	Sri T. Suresh Kumar
	Sri R.R.Girish Kumar, IPS(Retd)
	Sri K.Shiva Prasad
	Sri C.R.Gowri Shanker
	Sri Kopalle Phani Kumar
	Sri D.R.Garg, IAS
	K.Kasinath
	Sri M.Surya Naik (ST)
	Sri Koneti Rangaiah
	Sri Nadimpally Seetha Rama Raju
	Sri Kadempalli Venugopal
	Sri Kommineni Vikas
	Sri K.Surya
	Sri Nune Srinivasa Rao
	Sri V.Raghunath Rao
	Sri Prem Prakash Jauhari
	Sri Chava Srinivas
	Sri P.Dattaram Khatri
	Sri P.R.Subas Chandran
	Sri P.Vijaya Babu
	Sri V.R.K.Mohan Rao, IPS
	Sri Prasanna Kumar . S
	Sri A.M.Lakshmi Narasimha Rao
	Sri N.P.Ramakrishna Reddy
	Prof. P.L.Vishweshwar Rao
	Sri M.Maruti Prasad
	Sri K.V.Kishan Rao
	Sri Suresh Kumar. A
	B. Rama krishnam Raju
	Sri Muppalla Subba Rao
	Sri Prasannakumar Reddy. Somu.
	Sri M.Shabbir Ahmed
	Mrs.Mahpara Ali
	M.Bhaskar, IPS
	Sri Kandregula Venkataramana
	Karthik Chandra
	Sri K.S.Rao, IFS (Retd.)
	Dr.V.Rukmini Rao
	Dr.R.Akhileshwari
	Sri Mandadi Chalapati Rao
	Sri Sanyasi Rao
	Sri Komireddy Ramulu,
	Sri T.J.P.S.Vardhan
	Sri Kalluru Harinadha Reddy
	Sri A.R.Reddy, IRS
	Sri S.Prabhakar Reddy, IPS (Retd.)
	Dr.B.Madhusudhan Reddy

Lets hope that the best will be selected.

Seating Arrangements Problem and a solution in busstops

What was the Problem? :

Every citizen who has visited the bus stations or bus stops knows the problem of seating arrangement which is insufficient by any standards. Also CC/BT pavements have to be provided in all bus stations at IN and OUT approaches and parking yards, which are clearly not being provided. Some such pavements, which started construction, also were left incomplete by the R.T.C.

What do rules say? :

A.P.S.R.T.C has announced that they will provide seating arrangements at all bus stations and bus stops for the convenience of passengers. They also have started the construction of CC/BT pavements, which were very essential. But they haven’t finished their construction. Also they haven’t provided the seating arrangements.

What have we done? :

We lodged a 30 point complaint, on 11-11-2009, to the R.T.C. in which we mentioned this problem clearly. Though, the officials didn’t show interest on the complaint, we made them take some action by filing an R.T.I application, on 14-12-2009 demanding the action taken report on our complaint lodged.

Actions taken:

The civil engineer, who has taken up the job, sent a reply on 30-1-2010, issuing the orders to the Executive engineer, to provide seating arrangements and CC/BT pavements on the IN and OUT approaches at bus stations. He also ordered to complete the incompletely constructed pavements.

This is the power of R.T.I that made R.T.C. issue orders on the facilities that they announced but have not implemented. If you think you too can fight for some good cause you are welcome. We are here to help you.

Please download Complaint, RTI and Replies here.

Misuses of CAT CARD

What was the problem? :

In district ordinary (Palle Velugu) service buses, the CAT Card holders, who travel from one place to another for job purposes, are misusing the CAT Card for their personal benefit. Instead of taking a single ticket for the whole journey they take number of tickets on the whole journey. This is to avail concession on each ticket for their gain. For example instead of buying a Rs. 30 ticket which gives them a Rs.3 concession, they take 6 Rs.5 tickets so that they get each ticket for Rs.3 and they get double the concession. This results in loss to R.T.C.

What do rules say? :

CAT card was introduced in order to benefit the card holders by providing some concession on their ticket fare. The persons who opt for CAT cards are generally those people who travel on a regular basis. But the concession on the ticket fare is to be limited to only once in the whole journey. But due to some miscommunication and loopholes in the rules of CAT card the CAT card holders are misusing their liberty for saving their money.

What have we done? :

We lodged a 30 point complaint, on 11-11-2009, to the R.T.C. in which we mentioned this problem clearly. Though, the officials didn’t show interest on the complaint, we made them take some action by filing an R.T.I application, on 14-12-2009 demanding the action taken report on our complaint lodged.

Actions taken:

The reply came on 25-01-2010 regarding the CAT card issue and they made certain fare revisions. They claimed that according to new fare revision they have restricted CAT card holders from performing break journey so that they cannot avail additional concession than they originally deserved.

This is the power of R.T.I which made R.T.C to revise and review their loopholes and even correct their mistake to save public money. Please come forward to fight against any such incidents that you come across every day. We are here to help you.

Please download Complaint, RTI and Replies here.

Loksatta Times Magazine Rocks!!!

Our team is all over in the Loksatta Times Magazine latest edition.

We are proud to announce that a lot of activities that our group has worked on, are published in the official magazine.

Page 9 &10 : All our works. Also talks about the petition we had filed a month ago regarding the implementation of RTI act.
Page 16 & 17 : An article written by Srinivas Rao Ganji
Page 18 &19 : The bus stand event that we have completed successfully.
Page 19 : A simple poem written by our team member, Manasa Chamarthi. The subject she has chosen was, RTE (Right To Education )

Congratulations to the whole team,Manasa and special mention to Srinivas Garu for his hard work, dedication and determination to complete things on time.
I Thank you all for your continuous support and active participation in the events organized so far.

Please find below the link for the Loksatta Times Magazine, http://www.loksatta.org/cms/documents/lstimes/lstimes-2010-may-1-31.pdf

RTI helps to inspect recordsat government offices

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.”
And yes, we wanted to explore that unknown to bring a change. A change that will ensure the growth of the society.

Have you ever felt the nerve to inspect the Govt records and bring to light the corrupted activities? We did and that very thought made us well prepared for yet another attack on corruption, with our very own weapon RTI.

==============================================================================================================================

EVENT : Inspection of Records in Government Offices.

DATE(S): 20th March 2010 and 13th April 2010

GOVT. OFFICE(S) VISITED:

1. Irrigation & Command Area Develipment Department, AP Secretariat(on 13/04/2010)
2. Sri Parvathi Jadala Ramalingeswara Swami Devasthanam, Cheruvugattu Village, Narkatpalli Mandalam, Nalgonda Dt. (on 20/03/2010)

PURPOSE:

1. To verify whether the purchases/transactions are made from valid TOT or VAT dealers who inturn pays taxes to government.(Total amount of tax evasion every year is between 10,000 - 20,000 crores).
2. To verify whether the authorities are maintaining proper records for every rupee they receive/ every rupee they spend.
3. To ensure that the respective organizations are not escaping from paying the right amount of taxes that they should be paying ( By verifying the bills)

This will help us to understand and control the corruption level in that particular organization.

DETAILS OF SECTIONS USED:

1. RTI Act 2005, section 2(j)(I) gives the power to every individual to inspect any record of the govt. organization.
2. RTI Act 2005, section 2(j)(II) says that every one has the right to take the duplicate copy of the desired receipts.
3. As per VAT Act 2005, sec 17, every shop owner(turn over > 5lakhs) has to be registered as TOT or VAT dealer and must pay tax quarterly.
4. TOT(Turn over Tax) or TIN(Tax identification number) number must be printed on every bill.

For more information on commercial tax department, please refer following site, https://apcommercialtaxes.gov.in/

PROCEDURE:  For anybody who would like to verify the records,

1. File a RTI to the respective department/Organization where we wish to conduct an inspection. Please find attached RTI application's we filed to above offices.
2. We will be allocated a specific timeslot for the same, which is feasible for the respective Department/Organization, to proceed with review of records. Please find attached the response from respective departments.

ACTIVITIES DONE:

1. Verified: Inspection of bills(Money spent) for financial year 2005-06 and 2006-07 in temple.
2. Verified: Inspection of bills(Money spent) between 29/12/2009 and 31/12/2009 for stationary and other purposes.
3. Verified whether bills are from valid TOT or VAT dealer as per VAT Act 2005 (None of the bills had TOT or VAT number on it .i.e.NO TAX was paid for these purchases/transactions which was in lakhs)

We are going file a complaint with Commercial tax department on this.

ADVANTAGES:

• We can catch hold of illegal business owners who are evading lakhs of commercial taxes every year.
• We get to see how exactly the Govt. money is being spent at various organizations.
• If we feel that a particular organization is corrupted in any way, we can file complaint and make sure that the necessary actions are taken to bring the corruption levels to zero.
• Organizations will now be more disciplined and with surprise visits by the responsible people will make every Govt. employee work diligently.

In a simple words "More disciplined, Transparent and Corruption free Society"

OUR TEAM:

1. Srinivas Rao Ganji
2. Abdul Azeez Shaik
3. Subrahmanyam
4. Praveen
5. Kiran

PHOTOS: Please find below the link for photos of the event,

http://picasaweb.google.com/LoksattaSanjeevani/InspectionOfRecordsInGovtOfficesUsingRTI

Please join us in these activities and let us all work for the betterment of society that we all dream of, every minute and every day.

Regards
LOK SATTA PARTY-(Citizen Help Center, Saroornagar

Survey at Government Offices to check impelmentation of RTI Act

RTI is the one of the strongest weapons that the citizen in this country can ever get. It is the easiest way to control and avoid corruption in the society and gives us a hope to dream for an honest country.

As someone rightly said, "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending that we aim for".

With this in mind, we, the Loksatta CHC(Citizen Help Centre) started a lot of activities with RTI as a key tool, which will benefit the society in multiple ways.As part of this, on 6th March 2010,We did a survey at various government offices . Complete details below :

Event               : To check Implementation of RTI Act in Government Offices in Saroor Nagar Area

Date                : 6th March 2010

Offices Visited :

                         1. Tahsildar office

                         2. MPDO ( Mandal Parishad Development Office)

                         3. GHMC - LB Nagar Circle

Purpose          : The survey was primarily to check the implementation of the RTI Acts under sections 4(1)b and 5(1), (2), and 19(1).

RTI Acts involved and the details : 4(1)b and 5(1), (2), and 19(1)

Information that needs to be displayed : Below information needs to be displayed as per the above acts,The handbook (which will contain the details about the office, the officers within, the employees' duties and responsibilities, their names, salaries and other primary information) and board at the office entrance(which will contain the details about the Public Information Officer, Assistant Public Information Officer and Appellate Authority's name, the office address, Phone numbers, Mobile numbers, Fax numbers, Email address)

Procedure :

1) Do a survey to find out the offices which are not following RTI act

2) File a complaint to respective office and file a RTI to track the status

Activities Done :

1) Verified whether each government office has its RTI board and handbook as per sec 4(1)(b)

2) Registered a complaint for offices not following above rules and filed a RTI to track the status of the complaint

Advantages : Transparency and Accountability(This will help people contact the right person with out any confusion and they will immediately understand whom to approach, in case of issues).

Observations:

Only MPDO is having display board ( with nothing written on it ) and the remaining two have nothing to display at all.

We have filed complaint regarding the same for remaining two offices and again filed an RTI to track the status of the complaint.

Results so far:  Tahsildar office got its RTI board at entrance and we are following up for other complaints and we are expecting positive response from respecting authorities.

We are planning to file a WRIT on this in AP High court so that offices all over AP start implementing it.

Team Participated: Srinivas Ganji, Abdul Azeez, Pradeep, Savan Bandu and Praveen.

For photos of the event, visit following link,
http://picasaweb.google.com/LoksattaSanjeevani/06Mar2010SurveryAtGovernmentOffices#

All these attachments are uploaded at "files" section of loksattaSanjeevani@googlegroups.com group.

Join us in these activities. Let us fight for our rights. Let us fight for a better society and a better nation.