RTI: THAT ILLEGAL TOILET WAS BUILT ON REGISTRAR’S ORAL REQUEST

PANJIM: It has now been revealed that the alleged illegal toilet cum changing room at the official residence of Bombay High Court Registrar Ms. I.K.Jain at Patto Government colony at Panaji was built on a mere oral request of Ms I.K.Jain.

In information furnished to Adv. Aires Rodrigues under the Right to Information Act, PWD Executive Engineer Mr. Satish Tirodkar has informed that no permission/ N.O.C from the Corporation of City of Panaji was sought for the construction of that toilet cum changing room.

The PWD has also informed Adv. Rodrigues that it is not aware as to why permission/N.O.C from the Corporation of City of Panaji was not sought.

Adv. Rodrigues has been further informed that there was a verbal request made by Registrar Ms. I.K.Jain to the Executive Engineer Mr. Satish Tirodkar and Junior Engineer Mr. Rajan Salgaonkar to construct the toilet cum changing room.

The PWD has also informed Adv. Rodrigues that there was a written request from the High Court for setting up a Fibre glass police guard cabin at the residence of Ms.I.K. Jain which was installed at a cost of Rs 1, 05, 400.

PWD has also informed that a further cost of Rs 3, 12, 820 was incurred by the government on repairs/ construction works at the Registrar’s bungalow done from Jan to March this year which includes the costs of the alleged illegal toilet cum changing room.

Interestingly, the RTI information has revealed that though the High Court letter dated 13th Jan 2010 had asked PWD to repair or replace the garage shutter, Registrar Ms I.K.Jain verbally directed the PWD to convert the garage into a toilet cum changing room.

The Commissioner of the City of Panaji Mr. Elvis Gomes has already on 15th October issued a show cause notice as the construction of the toilet was in violation of Sec 269 of the CCP Act. The CCP in its notice has given 7 days to show cause as to why an order should not be passed ordering removal of the illegally constructed toilet.

Ms I. K. Jain was posted in Goa on 1st January this year within days of Justice J.N.Patel taking over as the acting Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. The then Registrar Mr. V.V Borikar known to be a no nonsense officer was on 31st December 2009 abruptly moved out of Goa within five months of his posting here. As the Registrar of the Bombay High Court at Goa usually has a tenure of three years it is not known why Ms. I.K.Jain was suddenly posted in Goa.