Filing RTI applications leads to Principal not being paid for one year

Dr Snehal Donde, the principal of Hind Seva Parishad-Public Night Degree College, Mumbai filed a series of applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which has led to her being left without the salary for last one year. The college receives salary grant from the education department, which makes the audit of the college by the office of Joint Director, Education Department, mandatory. Yet for the past decade when the college started receiving grants, no assessment was allegedly done by the department.

Her efforts by using RTI since 2009 was instrumental in getting an audit conducted in the month of October 2012, which revealed misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs. 1 Crore. This prompted the Joint Director, Manjusha Molwane to issue a directive towards adjusting the amount against the salary of the staff. Initially her effort wasn’t paid much heed to by the department but following the directive of the Chief Information Commissioner at the State Information Commission (SIC), Ratnakar Gaikwad things started moving.  Meanwhile, although the department went on releasing the grant but the salary of Dr. Donde along with 13 of her colleagues have not been paid for the past 1 year.