Debara’s dedication

Patience will pay, believes activist Omim Manekshaw Debara of Hyderabad whose two-year struggle resulted in the sensational order of the Andhra Pradesh Information Commission (APIC) directing that information relating to the assets of Indian Adminis­tra­tive Service (IAS) officers has to be provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The landmark order of November 15, 2010 will ensure transparency, revealed Debara, general secretary of Forum for Better Hy­dera­bad, to the Telu­gu language daily Eenadu on November 26 last year. If the IAS and IPS (Indian Police Service) officers are answerable, the entire system will be good, he maintained.

The government had contended that providing this information does not serve any public purpose and requires third party approval, reported Deccan Chronicle on November 16, 2010. But the Information Commission differed, reasoning that "when such details are provided as a mandatory rule to income-tax authorities and to the heads of departments by the same officials, the contention of the government in rejecting the plea for sharing similar information is not acceptable.”

Omim Debara: exposing dubious deals

Debara, who retired in 2004 from Allwyn and VST as engineering services manager has been active in the Forum since 2006. So far he has filed nearly 100 applications. "After retiring... I made it a habit of exposing the corrupt practices and dubious deals of the All India Service officials... I am very happy and compliment the APIC about this judgment... Nothing should be kept secret and the public should know all details of politicians and bureaucrats who are ruling them,” the activist informed Deccan Chro­nicle.

His 95-year-old mo­ther collects clippings regarding public grievances and gives them to him, Debara informed Eenadu. Among the other causes he has espoused are a petition against the allotment of 275 acres of land in Ranga Reddy District in the name of various housing societies for Members of Parliament, Members of the Legislative Assembly and judges; the cancellation of a proposed amusement park on five acres of land behind Hussain Sagar Lake; illegal constructions around his house; and the removal of encroachments on the pavements at Banjara Hills. In another matter, Rs 30 crore was shown as library cess collected by the municipal authorities, but there was no mention of expenditure. "I have approached the High Court and the Court directed that the entire cess collected should be spent on the libraries,” the activist told the newspaper. "I hope the condition of the libraries gets better in the near future.”