<< PIO Finalists

Dr Atul Fulzele

Dr Atul Fulzele, Superintendent of Police in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, has been devotedly serving the cause of bringing transparency in the various echelons of the Indian Police Service. First posted as Superintendent of Police in Una district when RTI Act was notified, he served as a responsible public information officer (PIO) disposing all the 43 applications he received by giving full and satisfactory information to all applicants. He has continued this trend even at Kangra where he has addressed almost all the applications with just 11 applicants going for appeal. Fulzele has tried to change the mindset of his subordinates by training them to fill forms for RTI applicants, voluntarily give information and not even wait till the end of the mandatory 30-day period to give information.

Why has he been shortlisted? Because out of 202 RTI applications received by him, only 11 went in first appeal and only one went in second appeal. He responded to 193 applicants within 30 days, providing information in many cases within a week. Out of those who he claims to have provided complete information, 85% people reported satisfaction.

It is not every day that a doctor ventures into Indian Police Service (IPS). But this is not where Dr Atul Fulzele’s uniqueness lies. It is in the passion for transparency that this 35-year-old Superintendent of Police of Kangra has. “The mindset of our police is the way the British were. They want to hide everything. They don’t realize that not everything is a secret and needs to be hidden from the people under the pretext that the matter is subjudice or is under investigation. It is this mindset that I have always wanted to change,” says Fulzele.

This 2001 batch IPS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre started with this motto when RTI was enacted in 2005. “I was the SP in Una and the designated public information officer (PIO). The first thing I did was to read the Act line by line to know the real powers and duties of PIO. After this I trained a clerk about what was RTI Act, how to receive applications and help applicants in filling out application forms,” explains Fulzele. But the going wasn’t that simple. There was immense resistance from the junior-level police staff in giving out information.

“The attitude is such that we police officials just resist giving out information. The fear is that people would seek information under RTI and then use it against us to prove police inaction. I had to fight this fear and skepticism. I had to tell them that it is not always that people are trying to prove police inaction. This has also made the police officials improve their conduct. They have become more responsible,” he feels. So how did he manage the resistance? “I have always tried to change their mindset. But when they still resisted I just put out an order that this information needs to be given and should be with me within three days. We, the police, still follow the British ways. We follow orders very well,” he says.

This attitude also reflects in his official record as a PIO. From 2006 till February 2008, he served as SP Kangra and was the PIO. He successfully disposed all 43 applications received by his office and not even a single applicant went in for first appeal. K D Sharma, an applicant in Una district who had applied for information on investigation in a tree cutting case, says, “I got all the information regarding investigation very promptly. When I went to their office to file an application the staff was well-behaved and very helpful. There was no problem at all in filing the application or receiving information.”

He continued this even in his current assignment at Kangra district. Of the 198 applications received by him, only 11 have gone for appeal. Of these only eight went for first and three for second appeals. All the three appeals to State Information Commission were rejected.

Dr Gursharan Singh Chaudhary, a resident of Bandi in Kangra district who had sought information about a criminal case against him, echoes similar satisfaction. “A few of my applications are still pending. While I am pursuing that matter for quite some time I was satisfied with the functioning of the SP office. While I have faced harassment at many offices in filing RTI applications there was no such thing here. There was no bad behaviour or refusal to accept applications.” Roop Chand of Jwalamukhi was even luckier. “I had applied for information related to Women’s Cell. I got information within four days. The staff was very courteous. They even filled out the application for me.”

Fulzele says that usually people are looking for information of their personal cases. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t give this information unless CrPC prohibits us,” he says. People usually ask why an FIR was not filed and only a complaint written by the police. “In this case we give the reply that it did not call for an FIR and sometimes when the applicant comes to our office or calls up on the phone it is explained to them that why a complaint and not an FIR was filed,” says Fulzele. There have been times when people have asked him for details of case which is under investigation. “We don’t refuse. RTI Act clearly says that all information should be provided unless it impedes investigation. So we have given information in cases which are under investigation also when we feel there is nothing that could really impede investigation.”

But it is not always that he has been so forthcoming with information. He has had to refuse. “It is a tough call but in matters which can be classified as going against ‘national interest’ we don’t reveal information. Sometime back we had arrested a Chinese spy here. Somebody asked us to reveal the interrogation report and even the documents which were seized rom him. We refused then. As SP Kangra the security of Dalai Lama also comes under our jurisdiction. Sometimes there are RTI applications asking for exact details of his security like number of men and other details, we don’t reveal because it is a sensitive security-related matter,” says Fulzele.

Born in Neri in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, Fulzele is a trained MBBS doctor. He was specializing in forensic science at Mumbai when he got interested in police service. “I was doing my MD in Mumbai. At that time Mumbai police used to come to us for medical advice or post mortem reports. I got very interested in criminal investigation and decided to join the police,” says Fulzele, who has served as aide-de-camp to Himachal Pradesh governor.

He feels that the government needs to have better training for officials to improve implementation of RTI Act. “It is a very effective tool to check corruption and bring transparency,” he says as he remembers how an NDTV correspondent had sought information on interrogation of Sunil Kulkarni, a prime witness in the high-profile BMW hit-and-run case. “I was Kangra SP then. Kangra police had earlier arrested Kulkarni in 2005 and during his interrogation he had revealed that R K Anand had offered him a place to live. We got this RTI application seeking details of interrogation report. We didn’t know this was filed by NDTV correspondent. I remember we had disclosed the information on interrogation report,” he says.

“This shows that RTI Act can be used effectively. I have seen through my experience that it is bringing about a change in us police officials,” he says proudly. EOM