Economic Times: New Delhi: Wednesday,
April 05, 2017.
After it was
given the strange reply of “documents have gone missing” when it asked for
ownership papers of a wedding hall in Rajajinagar, the state information
commission ordered an inquiry into the case.
It had to, as
the documents of the commercial building were not delivered even after
four-and-a-half years of continued requisition under Right to Information Act.
The case
refers to Sreenivasa Kalyana Mantapa. It was 14-10-2012, when Wg Cdr GB Athri
(rtd) first sought information pertaining to the building standing at No 619/G,
36th Cross, Rajajinagar 2nd Block. He wanted information on the building
sanction plan, self-assessment scheme (SAS) copies, khata extract and khata
documents.
Taking a
serious note of the matter, the commission has also recommended disciplinary
action against Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) assistant executive
engineer (AEE), assistant revenue officer (ARO) and assistant engineer (AE),
Rajajinagar for not providing the information despite repeated warnings.
14
hearings and no info
Since he did
not get the required information, Athri moved the state information commission
in February 2013. The commission then ordered the Rajajinagar revenue officer
to provide the khata documents and also directed the AEE to provide the
building plan within 30 days. Despite that, the case saw fourteen hearings
between Jan 2014 and June 2016, but no information came up with regard to the
building sanction plan. Instead the strange reason of the documents going
missing was furnished.
Meanwhile,
the assistant director of town planning (ADTP) West and East had submitted that
they had not approved the plan, which made it evident to the commission that
despite repeated warnings and penalty for over four years, why information was
not being provided by the persons who occupied the building.
It was then
that the commission recommended to the additional chief secretary, urban
development department to initiate disciplinary action against the BBMP
officials, custodians of the records, for their lapses, negligence and
dereliction of duty. Besides disciplinary action, the commission more than
doubled the compensation to the appellant from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for making
him run around for more than four years to get the information.
What
disturbed the commission, chaired by state information commissioner Shankar R
Patil, most was that the information was not provided. That BBMP officials
themselves did not have records of the commercial complex did not go down well
either. The bizarre reply by the building owner Dayanand, who had submitted in
writing that the documents may have gone missing either during frequent visits
by income tax officials or during renovation of the building drove the final
nail. Dayanand had also submitted to BBMP that the documents would be provided
once they were traced. The same reply had been submitted by BBMP to the
information commission, which is now beginning to doubt the very validity of
the wedding hall, so has asked the urban development department to conduct a
thorough inquiry into the matter.
“Four years
of running around and I could not get any information. Noble provisions of RTI
Act are defeated by corrupt bureaucracy. The question is how BBMP couldn’t have
documents like plan of such a huge commercial building. What the respective
officials have been doing all these years? The issue is just the tip of an
iceberg, and goes much beyond this case. The BBMP suffers a huge revenue loss
of lakhs of rupees," Wg Cdr G B Athri (rtd) told Bangalore Mirror.
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