<<Citizen Selection Procedure

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Ajay Dubey
Citizen-nominee for RTI Awards 2009 2009
Reference Number: C378
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Organization: Prayatna

 


Nominated by:

  • Dr. Deepica Bagchi
  • Shehla Masood
  • Manoor Sachdev
  • Girsih Borkar
  • Ratna Mukerji
  • Sahrmila Singh
  • Dr. Manu Gouraha

Why is he short-listed for RTI Awards 2009?
For using RTI Act to reveal the fact that hundreds of mines for both major and minor minerals in Madhya Pradesh had been operating without obtaining clearance from state pollution control board (MPPCB).
Dubey used the information in filing a PIL at Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking closure of illegal mines. The high court first ordered all illegal mines to close down and later allowed the smaller-sized mines to obtain no-objection certificate from MPPCB if they wanted to prevent their closure.
Dubey then appealed against this order in Supreme Court but later withdrew the appeal. The matter is still pending in High Court.
Dubey also used RTI Act to get state police headquarters to reveal that it received 2700 political recommendations between January 2008 and April 2008 for transfer postings of police officers.
Political recommendations for appointments or transfers have not only no place in states’ police manuals, they also go against the Supreme Court’s landmark order of 2006 that sought to insulate police forces from political influence.
Dubey again used the information in filing a PIL at Madhya Pradesh High Court to get the state government to account for allowing this illegality to take place. The PIL also prayed for the state government to be tried for contempt of Supreme Court.

Details of the nomination

Ajay Dubey is secretary and one of the founders of Prayatna, a Bhopal-based NGO that primarily works to prod government to take action to prevent or mitigate pollution and damage to the environment.
Dubey has also been active in raising other public interest issues such as political influence on police establishment and functioning of state election commission.
Dubey has been a prolific user of RTI Act, 2005. He has claimed in his nomination to have filed 3000 RTI applications to highlight public issues.
Dubey’s RTI investigations have so far led to two most notable successes.

  1. The revelation that Madhya Pradesh government had allowed hundreds of mines to operate in the state without clearance from state pollution control board (MPPCB).
  2. The revelation that Madhya Pradesh police continued to receive hundreds of illegal “recommendations” from politicians and bureaucrats for transfer of police officers, damaging the integrity and independence of law enforcement.

The nominee used both revelations to file PILs at Madhya Pradesh High Court. The facts of the two cases are as follows.
(a) Having been aware of alarming increase in air and water pollution due to unregulated mining activity in Madhya Pradesh, Dubey made an RTI request to MP Pollution Control Board (MPCCB) on March 12, 2007, asking for the number of operational mines in the state, particulars of mines operating without approval of MPPCB, and the action taken by the board against operators of mines that were without approvals.
In its response to Dubey’s RTI request, dated April 4, 2007, MPPCB admitted that out of 526 major mines (of size above five hectares), as many as 296 did not have its approval and under Water and Air Acts.
The response also showed that the state government had been completely bypassing MPPCB in allowing mining activity. MPPCB said it had been “trying” to obtain information about various mines through its regional offices, implying that state government had felt no need to even inform MPPCB that a mine had been allowed to start operations.
MPPCB also explained the difficulty in enforcing the environmental norms on mining activity because of frequent, changes in guidelines of the central government.
MPPCB advised Dubey to obtain information about mines with area less than five hectare from its regional offices, which he did. According to that information, about 900 minor mines had been active without MPPCB approval.
It took Dubey almost a year to gather enough information from MPPCB to file in February 2008 a PIL at Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking closure of illegal mines.
The high court first ordered, on July 2, 2008 that all illegal mines be closed down and later allowed the mines with leased land of area less than five hectare to obtain no-objection certificate from MPPCB if they wanted to prevent their closure.
After the court order of July 2008, till December 2008, about 2700 mines obtained MPPCB approval. That rush for approvals earned MPPCB over Rs one crore in fees paid by holders of mine leases.
The rush also highlighted MPCCB’s questionable procedure of giving environmental clearance to a mine or renew an approval sometimes on the day that an application is made, according to Dubey.
Dubey then appealed to the Supreme Court against this order of the High Court that allowed mine lease holders to get instant approvals to continue their hitherto illegal operations, but later withdrew the appeal.
The matter is still pending in High Court.
The case shows how high and mighty are making a mockery of environmental laws and the state has been complicit in the inevitable damage to the environment. Dubey’s effort also shows that active citizens can make state actors perform their duty, but it will perhaps take many more Dubeys to tilt the scales in favour of law-abiding citizens.
The case has been widely reported in the press.
(b) Dubey made an RTI request on April 8, 2008 to Madhya Pradesh Police HQ, seeking details of transfers of police officials on political recommendations since January 1, 2008. The police HQ stonewalled Dubey’s request for several months. After state information commission’s intervention, the police HQ was compelled to reveal to Dubey on September 9, 2009 that it received 2700 political recommendations since January 1, 2009, out of which 629 were accepted and 434 were “pending” action.
As many as 65 DSPs, 9 ASPs, and 140 inspectors had been transferred on political recommendations.
The information provided by the police HQ included names of cops who were transferred and in some cases names of MLAs and ministers who “recommended” their transfers. The list also named ‘state government’, ‘CM office’ and ‘secretary CM’ as the influencers of police postings. The information also revealed that state government directly transferred 20 DSPs without any proposal from police establishment board, which was set up recently to function as an independent authority in matters of appointment and transfers of cops.
Even though it is well known that politically powerful in India use police as their musclemen, it was nevertheless a surprising and very damning revelation. Surprising because police HQ had been made to give documentary evidence of its helplessness in an absolutely illegal act of the politically powerful people to interfere in police postings. And damning because Madhya Pradesh government had been shown to be totally contemptuous of Supreme Court order of 2006 that suggested a road-map for states to insulate their police forces from political influence.
Widespread interference in transfers of cops also showed that the political executive in Madhya Pradesh had no intention of allowing police establishment board to function as an independent authority in matters of appointment and transfers of cops.
Dubey then submitted a memorandum to the state election commission, seeking probe into transfers and postings carried out on the recommendations of politicians.
Dubey argued that politicians could have sought transfers on a large scale in months ahead of Assembly elections in order to influence elections.
The memorandum also sought cancellation of transfers that were said to be made on political recommendations.
Dubey filed a PIL in May 2009 at High Court, seeking among other thing a trial of the government for contempt of Supreme Court order of 2006.
The HC issued in the same month a show-cause notice to state government and police, seeking their explanation as to why 629 cops were transferred on political recommendations.
The state government has responded to the show-cause notice and until September 10, 2009 next hearing has not taken place.
Dubey believes that this is the first time HC has admitted a petition that seeks action against state government’s blatant contempt of Supreme Court’s order.

He believes the case will go a long way in compelling MP government to introduce police reforms as suggested by the Supreme Court.