Times of India: Chennai: Thursday, August 03, 2017.
The Chennai
Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has rejected an RTI application
seeking the approved plan diagram of a commercial superstore under construction
on Duraisamy Road in T Nagar citing risk to the firm's business.
The response
has brought to light the CMDA's agenda of protecting building violators,
especially in T Nagar, said RTI activists.
The RTI
application filed by B Kannan of T Nagar on July 7 sought a copy of the
"approved plan diagram" of the building under construction at No.1
Duraisamy Road. According to CMDA's website, the plan applicant Siva Aruldurai
has been permitted to construct stilt plus three floors, including a basement,
for commercial purposes.
In its response
on July 26, the CMDA cited Rule 8(1) sub clause (j) of the RTI Act, 2005, and
said that disclosure of the plan diagram would "harm the competitive
position of third party." The response said that the information sought by
the applicant did not "warrant any large public interest" and hence
should be exempted from disclosure.
Kannan told
TOI that the entity building the store is under the scanner for building
violations.
RTI activist
V Gopalakrishnan rubbished the response. "The applicant had not sought
personal information. As per CMDA norms, the approved plan should be put up on
a display board at the site," he said.
Gopalakrishnan
said that the CMDA's public information officer (PIO) may not be thorough with
the provisions under the RTI Act. "Any information that cannot be denied
to the Parliament or state legislature cannot be denied to an individual. It
says so in the same sub-clause (j) that the PIO used to deny the
application," he added.
A former CMDA
official said that it was wrong for the agency to set a "disturbing
trend" of denying basic information. Kannan added that he will be filing
an appeal on his RTI query with the appellate authority.
CMDA member
secretary C Vijayaraj Kumar could not be reached for comment.