Using the Right to Information (RTI) as a tool, a 45 year old transmission executive of All India Radio is locked in a tenacious battle with his own department in a bid to expose corruption and nepotism in the organisation.
The executive, Ravindra Parmar who works in All India Radio, Ahmedabad first came to know of the alleged involvement of four of his colleagues in a racket in 2008 wherein they would appropriate to themselves sponsored programmes being commissioned by the government from private agencies, carry it out themselves and appropriate the financials.
Parmar moved an application under the RTI Act seeking details about the sponsored programmes. His plea for information hit a wall and were fended off with either half-baked replies or bland statements to the effect that records were not available.
With whatever information his repeated pleas could glean, Parmar knocked the doors of the CBI which swung into action in 2008 raiding the office and residences of the various officials including the station director Sadhana Bhatt. Following the raid and subsequent investigations, two of the executives, the husband-wife team of Mihir and Ashleesha Mehta were placed under suspension and continue to be so to this date. The two had set-up a company, Manisha Creative which was allegedly being used to secure the programmes contracts.
According to Parmar, All India Radio suffered a loss of Rs 70 lakhs due to this abuse of well laid out service rules. “There will be many more such cases and the losses will go into a huge sum of money, if the records are properly probed. In these cases also what has emerged so far is merely the tip of the iceberg”, he says charging that more people are involved and even conduct of higher-ups role needs to be looked into.
“According to Central Civil Services (CCS) conduct rule 15(1)(f) & 8, no staff member of All India Radio and Doordarshan is authorized to give voice or to act in the sponsored programs, but some of my colleagues didn’t care about the rules and gave their voice in sponsored programs.” As per Ravindra Parmar.
He is emphatic that “Before a program is aired, it is the responsibility of the station director to check the entire program. It is only after it is cleared by him that it is aired.”
Parmar is a man possessed. He has so far filed 30 RTI applications pertaining to AIR. In fact his persistence has led the AIR management to file a complaint that he is misusing RTI to harass it, and as a result he has now been served with a show cause notice.
Parmar however refuses to give up and is doggedly pursuing the matter. The CBI has recommended Regular Departmental Action (RDA) but the department is yet to move in this regard. Parmar’s question is why only two employees have been suspended, when there are atleast three others who are involved ? He is not happy with the CBI as well and on 26 February 2010 he has filed an application under section 319 of CrPC, in the CBI court seeking reinvestigation of the case.
“An outsider can fight against corruption, but to be in the system and to fight against one’s own colleagues and seniors, it becomes very much difficult”, he says adding that during the last four year’s epic battle, he has gone through unbearable stress and harassment including threat to life. He now stands transferred to Bikaner but has refused to go advancing the plea that he is been transferred because he is raising his voice against corruption.
Acting on his complaint the Central Vigilance Commission has directed AIR to stop his transfer not to harass him. Even Ahmed Patel, political advisor to Congress President Sonia Gandhi has acted on his representation and urged for a stop of his transfer. Unfazed, Ravindra Parmar’s epic battle continues. “I will not rest until I get justice”, he says emphatically.
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