Monday 2 April 2012

RTI on Railway Board on the VIP/HOR quota thing . . .



Right to Information APPLICATION UNDER RTI ACT OF INDIA 2005.

To:-

The CPIO under RTI Act of India or incumbent thereof,
Railway Board, New Delhi,
D.D. (PG) & C.P.I.O. (Registration & Coordination)
R.No 05, RTI Cell /
Rail Bhavan, New Delhi -110001

02nd April 2012

By eMail and by post signed hard copy

Greetings & Jai Hind!! Most humbly request information under the RTI Act of India, 2005, please provide me with the following information. THIS INFORMATION IS SOUGHT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, also, AND THERE IS OVER-RIDING PARAMOUNT LARGER PUBLIC INTEREST, also, TO BE GIVEN THE INFORMATION I HAVE ASKED FOR.

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INFORMATION REQUIRED:- In context with "HOR Quota", "VIP quota" and Indian Railways documents appended at "A" and "B" below, following information may kindly be provided under the RTI Act of India, 2005.

1) Please provide me with information on exact and precise definition of the term VIP as used by Indian Railways in the documents referred to in "A" and "B" below.

2) Please provide me with precise and exact information on what is the ""well established practice being followed since long" as used in document under "A" appended below in context with berths/seats being earmarked for said HOR quota.

3) Please provide me with exact and precise information on under what authority "centralised data on reservation quota on trains running on Indian Railways are not maintained" as used in document under "A" appended below.

4) Please see clause 1 in document under "B" below:- "(i) The Emergency Quota on different trains will be released by the Railway authorities nominated for this purpose from time to time" and please provide me with information on who these Railway Authorities nominated are.

5) Please provide me with exact and precise information on what happens to the unutilised upper berths in 1AC when HOR/VIPs are travelling by 1AC under clause (vii) where document under "B" states:- ""In case a 4-berth compartment is to be allotted to an HOR holder in the absence of a coupe, a) two HOR holders may be clubbed together in a 4 berth compartment; and b) if clubbing of two HOR holders into a 4 berth compartment is not feasible and a Member of Parliament happens to be travelling by the same train, the latter may be allotted accommodation in the 4-berth compartment along with an HOR holder.""

6) Please provide me with exact and precise information on the meaning of the term "status of the passenger travelling" as used in Clause iX of document under "B" appended below.

7) Please provide me with information on policy of alloting lower berths only to all HOR/VIP quotas.

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(Please see the following documents appended below)

A) http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=50095

Ministry of Railways10-July, 2009 13:49 IST / Headquarters quota for railway reservation / Rajya Sabha

In order to meet the urgent travel requirements of high official requisition holders, which includes Central / State Government Ministers, Judges of Supreme Court of India, High Courts of various States & MPs/MLAs/VIPs, a limited number of berth/seats have been earmarked as High Official Requisition(HOR) Quota in different trains and in different classes. The HOR quota is released in accordance with the priority as per warrant of precedence and well established practice being followed since long.

The requests for release of berths should reach the quota controlling authority before the release of quota. Centralized details of reservation quota available in trains running on Indian Railways are not maintained.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Ministry of Railways, Shri E. Ahamed in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

B) http://www.rscws.com/pdfdocs/Stream-linining_release_of_emergency_berth_quota.pdf

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (Bharat Sarkar) / MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (Rail Mantralya) / (RAILWAY BOARD) **** No.2010/TG-I/14/P New Delhi, dated 09 .02.2011 / Chief Commercial Managers, All Zonal Railways. (COMMERCIAL CIRCULAR NO. 10 OF 2011), Sub: Streamlining the procedure for release of berths out of Emergency Quota (issued by (Y.K. Sharma), Director Traffic Commercial (G)-II, Railway Board)

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Note 1) If any of the above said statutory records is not available, the complete details of how it was destroyed / weeded out in each case..

Note 2) Electronic access to the catalogue (or catalogues) of all records of your public authority duly indexed in a manner and the form to facilitate right to information, either over the computer networks or in the form of a diskette or other electronic media at the prescribed fees.

Sent by eMail and signed hard copy, (signed) and humbly submitted, I confirm that I am a citizen of India, self-attested.





Veeresh Malik, D-61, Defence Colony, New Delhi - 11oo24 (mobile: 00-91-99118-25500)

Note 3:-Application fee of Rs. 10/- in cash shall be submitted within 30 days as per procedure laid down by DoP&T at PIO, Railway Board, New Delhi, or at any one of the nominated APIOs located at the specified Post Offices in India, and a copy of this application along with receipt shall be sent to you co-terminus. Interim, you are requested to commence processing this RTI Application as per the RTI Act-2005 with effect from date of submission of this electronic copy, also as per the RTI Act-2005.

Note 4:- The public authority, Railway Board, New Delhi, has not yet published their arrangements to accept / accompany electronic payments for e-filings as per section 6 of the Information Technology Act 2000, is requested to do same, - and hence I am constrained to go to extra expense / trouble to file a routine email request by Postal Department also.

Note 5:- I wish to specify that you may please not provide to me that information (or particular portion thereof) which would impede the prosecution of offenders under any law of India, and also any personal information which is unconnected with any public activity/interest or which invades the privacy of any person. THIS INFORMATION IS SOUGHT IN THE LARGER PUBLIC INTEREST, AND THERE IS OVER-RIDING PARAMOUNT LARGER PUBLIC INTEREST TO BE GIVEN THE INFORMATION I HAVE ASKED FOR.

Note 6:- Humbly also submitted that section 8(2) of RTI Act clearly mentions that "A public authority may allow access to information, if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests". In present case even section 8(1)(j) is applicable for the information sought. Also it leaves no scope to invoke section 11 of RTI Act for seeking 'third party' comments. However since various CIC-verdicts allow protection in form of hiding certain information likely to be misused, bank-details etc in the sought information may be hided by putting a whitener on the relevant portions of the documents to be provided. In case RTI petition relates to some other public-authority, please transfer this RTI petition to CPIO there under section 6(3) of RTIAct.

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((If applicable:- (Postal-order number __________________ _______________ for rupees ten is enclosed with signed hard-copy towards RTI fees in name of "Accounts Officer" as per DoPT circular-number No.F.10/9/2008-IR dated 05.12.2008.)))

4 comments:

V M said...

One response received offline:- Great going veeresh.This is a good area you have unearthed.A lot of hanky panky going on.
If you know the right politicians and crooked connnections in the Railway Board people have
got free tickets for YEARS.
Do you know that there is a handicapped quota? I know somebody who fudged this showing
some kind of fake handicap and availed of benefits from the Indian Railways.
There are crooks swimming and we need vigilante groups and people like you to raise a finger
and gear for a rethink.
Well done!

Anonymous said...

Quite an eye-opener!!!

Anonymous said...

Even though the facts were in front of me I never realised the reason till I read this RTI Application of yours. About a month ago I booked tickets for my wife, myself and my kids (toddlers) in 1AC. Though the ticket is confirmed the seats have not been specified.
What a bunch of freeloaders our politicians have become..! I hope they realize that it is because of this preferential treatment that they sequester for themselves that they are viewed as "Politicians" and not "Leaders" any more...!

Unknown said...

To add this RTI, I'd be very curious to know how the Tatkal WL is cleared. Is that cleared in advance of existing general RAC and WL passengers? Or interleaved with general RAC/ WL passengers? If interleaved, what is the ratio?

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