MHA goofs up, fails to trace petition by noted Gandhian

New Delhi, May 8, 2009: The Home Ministry has admitted to
having failed to trace a petition filed by noted Gandhian Late
Nirmla Deshpande, which had been forwarded to it by the Prime
Minister's office, on Nithari serial killings issue.
The MHA, in its reply to an RTI application filed by
Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra, has said that the petition was
untraceable despite its best efforts.
"Despite our best efforts... the petition is not
traceable in this division," Deputy Secretary in the Ministry
of Home Affairs Prem Narayan Saxena said.
Batra, one of the signatories to the petition, alleged
that the procedure adopted for processing the petition was
done against the "established" practice.
The letter by former Rajya Sabha member Deshpande was
forwarded to the MHA by a junior official-- section officer
Jagjit Kumar-- of the PMO without even putting it before the
Prime Minister, he alleged.
"As per established practice, any communication coming
from the Members of Parliament are placed before the Prime
Minister for perusal and then forwarded to respective
departments for follow-up action," said Batra, who filed an
RTI in the matter.
Not getting a satisfactory reply, Batra pleaded before
the Central Information Commission (CIC) that a letter from an
MP on a matter concerning a national issue has been dealt with
by a section officer.
"The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) could not
account for the disposal of annexure since there is no
reference to these in the records nor are they referred to in
the letter of Section Officer Jagjit Kumar forwarding the
application to MHA..." the CIC observed.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah in his
order directed the CPIO Amit Agrawal to inquire into whether
these annexure have gone and inform Batra accordingly.
Acting on CIC's direction, the PMO's Section Officer
Ratan Kumar Das recently forwarded a letter to CS division of
the MHA asking it to furnish the copy of the petition filed by
Deshpande along with the original enclosures for putting up
the case to higher-ups.
But the Home Ministry said that PMO reference number
23/3/08/-PMP-1/326361 dated February 25, 2008 regarding the
petition was not traceable in the Centre-State division.
The letter addressed to Prime Minister on Nithari
killings, signed by over 70 eminent citizens, including Late
Nirmala Deshpande, activist Swami Agniwesh, Mohini Giri,former
Law Minister Shanti Bhsushan, Magsaysay awardee Prashant
Bhushan, was written under the banner of Campaign for
Accountability of Public Authorities.
The members had shown their concern over little progress
made in the case and appealed the Prime Minister to see that
justice is done to the victims' families.