Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 17721
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div style="text-align: justify">-The Times of India</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 17721
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div style="text-align: justify">-The Times of India</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr6804831facfb9-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr6804831facfb9-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 17721,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
-The Times of India
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 17850,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 17721
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Right to Information,rti&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;MUMBAI:&lt;/em&gt; An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara&#039;s Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&amp;quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;As in Ghadge&#039;s case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &amp;quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&amp;quot; Roy said.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &amp;quot;unsung hero&amp;quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &amp;quot;misconduct&amp;quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: justify&quot;&gt;Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &amp;quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&amp;quot; Gandhi said. &amp;quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&amp;quot;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div style="text-align: justify">-The Times of India</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 17721,
		'title' => 'Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div style="text-align: justify">
-The Times of India
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 17850,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 17721,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Right to Information,rti',
	'metaDesc' => '
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...',
	'disp' => '<div style="text-align: justify">-The Times of India</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;</div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 17721,
	'title' => 'Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div style="text-align: justify">
-The Times of India
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify">
Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Times of India, 30 October, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-on-Maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle/articleshow/17013075.cms?',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'whistleblower-on-maharashtra-dams-in-legal-tangle-hemali-chhapia-17850',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 17850,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 17721
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia'
$metaKeywords = 'Right to Information,rti'
$metaDesc = '
-The Times of India





MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land...'
$disp = '<div style="text-align: justify">-The Times of India</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify"><em>MUMBAI:</em> An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">&quot;The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs,&quot; Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. &quot;My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left,&quot; Roy said.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an &quot;unsung hero&quot;. But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for &quot;misconduct&quot; and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act.</div><div style="text-align: justify"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify">Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. &quot;A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery,&quot; Gandhi said. &quot;Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up.&quot;</div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

Whistleblower on Maharashtra dams in legal tangle -Hemali Chhapia

-The Times of India MUMBAI: An RTI activist from the city who unearthed information on the long-pending dam projects in Maharashtra has been served a notice asking him to prove that he is the owner of the single piece of land that he owns. Four months ago, Jeetendra Ghadge had filed an RTI on all the dam works across Maharashtra. The response he received was scandalous. Even as large parts of Maharashtra reel under drought, dams initiated as long ago as 45 years ago were still works in progress. Construction deadlines had been pushed endlessly and costs were inflated, sometimes leading to a project itself getting drowned. The information was priceless but Ghadge had to pay for his curiosity. He and his mother received a notice from the talati of Satara's Khatav taluka (Ransingwadi village), where he owns 6.5 acres of land inherited from his late father. The tehsildar asked him to prove that he was the real owner as someone has pressed a claim for the same piece of land. "The notice is handwritten and illegible and it proves the intention of the sender. It is clearly an attempt to make my mother and me run from pillar to post. But such harassment is not going to deter me from filings more RTIs," Ghadge said. This is not the first time he has faced such an attack from the government machinery-once, in the past, the water supply in his house was cut for a week. The RTI information that Ghadge got on the dams was damaging for the government. Several dams, small and large, the RTI response revealed, are stuck: some for want of funds, others because land will have to be acquired. Many others have been stalled because of the crossfire between the state and the population that will get displaced. To quote just two examples, a project started in 1967 is still under construction while the Nira Deoghar project, initiated in May 1984, has seen a cost escalation of 2,070%, going from Rs 61.5 crore to Rs 1,334.4 crore. It is now languishing due to a lack of funds. As in Ghadge's case, the going has become tougher for most RTI activists. While some said they had personally not faced such blatant harassment, most conceded that they no longer received a response to their RTI queries within the stipulated one month and had to file an appeal in at least 80% of the cases. RTI activists, like other human rights defenders, are used to living on the edge. Many of them are regularly harassed or assaulted whenever they have come too close to the truth while some have even been killed. Manoranjan Roy, an activist who had asked for sensitive information from the sales tax department, was shocked when an officer landed up at his place to confirm his address. "My wife was alone at home when this officer came. He enquired about my whereabouts, asked for my cell number and left," Roy said. Another case is that of Rajeev Kumar, a professor from the computer science department at IIT-Kharagpur. Through a series of RTIs, he had revealed flaws in the joint entrance exam and was lauded by the Supreme Court as an "unsung hero". But Kumar was suspended in May 2011 for "misconduct" and charged with damaging the reputation of IIT-Kharagpur by making allegations on several issues from the purchase of laptops to copying in examinations, all details he had unearthed using the RTI Act. Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi acknowledged that the administration becomes wary once it senses that a particular RTI user has the capability to bring official misdeeds out in the open. "A certain kind of resistance is built up against him by the machinery," Gandhi said. "Information is not revealed under some pretext and the administration knows that once it lands up in the commission, it will take some time for it to come up."