No MP or MLA ever attended any district vigilance committee meetings in Pune
15 Oct, 2013
The reply to an application filed with the office of the district social welfare office, Pune under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the elected representatives from the district have not attended a single meeting of the district vigilance and monitoring committee in the past two years.
The district vigilance and monitoring committee has been formed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (prevention of cruelty) Act 1989 to monitor and implement the various sections of the law so as to protect the socially-backward segments of the society. The committee is chaired by the district collector and the members include the SP, three group A gazetted officers of the state government belonging to the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribes, not more than five non-official members belonging to the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes and elected representatives of the Parliament and the legislative Assembly. The Act also mandates the attendance of the elected representatives for the meetings that are to be held once every three months.
The reply to the application shows that the committee has met 19 times in the last two years but no elected representative was ever present in the meeting. When asked, some representatives blamed the district administration and some blamed the department of social welfare claiming that they never received any invitation to attend the meeting.