Babus, watch out, a Maharashtra town shows what lies in store

The amount by itself, Rs 250 per day for 13 days, isn’t much but it has sent shock waves throughout the MSEB.

The case, in brief:

• Ravindra Tardeja was harassed by two MSEB engineers over alleged faulty meters at his home and shop.

• He went to the Assistant Electricity Inspector (AEI) who cleared him of all charges but neither informed him nor the MSEB.

• Last September, Tardeja procured copies of the Act from Mumbai. After studying it, he decided to probe the alleged corruption by MSEB engineers in various cases of permanent disconnection since 1986.

• With a copy of the Act, he asked Assistant Engineer K.M. Ingole for the information.

• The AE sat on the file and Tardeja reported the matter to Executive Engineer B S Jaiswal at Akola.

• Citing MRTI provisions, Jaiswal asked Ingole to pay a fine of Rs 250 per day on Ingole for 13 days of delay.

‘‘If I hadn’t done it to Ingole, my superiors would have done it to me,’’ says Jaiswal. ‘‘I think this will lead to officers promptly providing information. But I am afraid that this will lead to their arm-twisting by dubious complainants.’’

Jaiswal, who has become the first appellate authority to act under MRTI, has been since flooded with inquiries.

So is Ingole, due to retire on March 31. ‘‘I have admitted my fault. But nobody knows I gave Tardeja information for the past many months. This was the first time I failed to deliver as he had asked for information of the last seven years. I think I should have been excused,’’ he says. Tardeja, however, says he went to Jaiswal as Ingole didn’t deliver in time not once, but several times.

Jaiswal’s fears aren’t unfounded. As was evident when members of social activist Anna Hazare’s Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan ransacked the office of Akola District Deputy Registrar (DDR) of Co-operative Societies on January 7 for, among other reasons, not furnishing the list of ‘‘errant” directors of a bankrupt credit society.

Office Superintendent S.P. Pohare says Hazare’s men asked for the list of 39 directors of the defunct Vidarbha Credit Society, which owes about Rs 2 crore to investors. ‘‘I showed them one and asked them to write down the names. They wanted a copy. I said you’ll have to apply for it. But they went off in a huff and the next day, they did this,’’ he says. Hazare’s men, however, say they sent many ‘‘representations,’’ but couldn’t produce one to substantiate their claim.

The list, anyway, was only the immediate provocation. The main demand has been action against ‘‘errant’’ bank directors and return of investors’ money.