Rajesh Bissa has been awarded the 2nd prize in the Citizen category and will be given a cash prize of Rs 1lakh.

Rajesh Bissa has been awarded the 2nd prize in the Citizen category and will be given a cash prize of Rs 1lakh.

Why is he short-listed for National RTI Awards?

For using RTI Act, to reveal large-scale irregularities and corruption in selection of a private partner for Rs 2500 crore road project and award of other large contracts by Chhattisgarh government.

Bissa s investigation found that under Chhattisgarh Accelerated Road Development Programme (CARDP), the government selected IL&FS, a Mumbai-headquartered company, for upgrading 1500 kms of roads, but signed an agreement for 2500 kms in an apparently crude attempt to allow an unfair, extra advantage of Rs 5700 crore to the private partner. The investigation found that the state government had also broken many rules to favour IL&FS over its three competitors.

The revelation forced the government to undo the fraud by describing the occurrence of 2500 km in the agreement as a typing error . It also led to an enquiry by Chhattisgarh Lok Ayog and stalling of entire work on 1500 km.

In another case, Bissa used RTI to show that state-run entity New Raipur Development Authority did away with tendering in selecting IL&FS for creating a special purpose vehicle that would plan four large projects in the upcoming city of New Raipur.

In a similar revelation, Bissa showed that Chhattisgarh Infrastructure Development Authority (CIDC) granted to an IL&FS subsidiary Rs 1.50 crore contract to prepare project reports of three industrial parks.

All these revelations became subject of enquiry by Chhattisgarh Lok Ayog. The CIDC case is pending in Chhattisgarh high court. The series of scams also became a significant but not decisive issue in the 2008 assembly elections.