Bhatia seeks support to sack 200 talathis

The appeal for the public support came during his lecture on Clean Administration, at the series organised by Rotary Club Chinchwad and Sakal Papers’ Trust. “I am saying this because this has never happened before and perhaps is not likely to happen”.

Bhatia said he would present all the facts of the cases against each individual talathi so that the people themselves could give an opinion on the nature of the punishment. He added that he would also like to hear from the people affected due to the talathis’ harassment on how they should be penalised. “It may not be possible for me alone to initiate the action”, he said.

“It is sad that I have to say this and make an appeal before you”, Bhatia said. He said the public support was necessary as the talathis have a strong union. They have shown their strength. Their union has claimed that the irregularities were due to `rush of work’. Bhatia said the seriousness of their wrong doings was such that in some cases the talathis have taken thumb impressions of people who were dead on the 7/12 extracts of land. “It is a criminal offense. Minor punishments such as stopping salary increments of Rs 50 would hardly do any justice," Bhatia maintained.

When people were asked to submit their complaints against the talathis, they were very less in number. But when teachers and anganwadi workers were asked to contact the villagers, over 50,000 complaints were received from Pune district alone, Bhatia said. While 3000 talathis involved in irregularities were identified, out of these, 200 talathis were found to be involved in serious irregularities.

Bhatia said the action was not to harass the talathis. Some talathis were doing good work. However, they too have been forced to support the union’s actions.

Bhatia urged the people to strongly lobby for approval of the bills for the right to information. He lamented that over the last fifty years, people’s participation was not possible because basic information regarding the developmental activities was not made available. The secrecy in government functioning was brought during the colonial rule and the same is being implemented after independence, he said.

There should be accountability in work, and also a greater public awareness is needed, Bhatia opined. He said people can send their suggestions to the government regarding the three bills on the right to information.