Yellur still labelled as a Maharashtra village

BELGAUM: Officially, Yellur is very much a part of Belgaum district though a name board there says that the village is in Maharashtra. But the district administration is hesitating to remove the board, though it is actually in Karnataka. It has come to light that government departments are just trying to escape from the responsibility of having to take action and remove the board.RTI activist Bheemappa Gadad from Mudalgu village had earlier submitted an application to the Deputy Commissioner of Belgaum under the RTI Act seeking details of Yellur village, including the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies that the village belongs to, and the action taken against the board that has ‘Maharashtra state’ written on it. The application was filed on March 21 last and the DC’s office partly replied on April 5, stating that Yellur village falls in Belgaum South Assembly and Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency.However, it forwarded questions about the board to the zilla panchayat chief executive officer, who forwarded the same to Belgaum taluk panchayat (TP), on April 18, 2011. Yellur gram panchayat and Belgaum TP office in their reply dated May 9, 2011 said that Gadad had not asked for any particular document under the RTI Act. It is true that one cannot ask for an opinion or reason under the act. However, the ZP office replied saying that the board is not kept in the gram panchayat limits.When Gadad filed an appeal on May 24, over the silence regarding his other queries, the DC’s office directed the Belgaum tahsildar to provide information. It also sent a reminder on July 18. Then it instructed the Executive Engineer of Public Works Department (PWD) to provide an answer about the board. The department stated that ‘Maharashtra state’ has not been mentioned on its board and it also said in its next sentence that “As the matter is linguistically sensitive, the district administration has to take appropriate action”. Ignorance ExposedThe ignorance of district administration about the RTI Act has been exposed in the answers given to the RTI application. The administration has tried to questions like “what is your opinion, why no action was taken on board issue, when will you take action in this regard”. It is clear that only information that is available in the form of documents or digital documents in the office can be provided under the Act. It is to be noted that Yellur Gram Panchayat and Belgaum Taluk Panchayat have proved their knowledge by saying, “There is no provision to answer such questions in the Act”.