Friday, August 17, 2018

Kalyan man awaits Rs 10,000 compensation from Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation

DNA: Mumbai: Friday, August 17, 2018.
A Kalyan resident is still waiting for Rs 10,000 compensation from the KDMC on the state information commission's order. The commission had directed the civic body to pay him the amount as the latter not only failed to provide him the information but also caused inconvenienced to the applicant.
In March 2017, Kalyan activist Shrinivas Ghanekar had sought information from the Town Planning department of the KDMC (Kalyan Dombivali municipal corporation) about the number of projects it had updated on its web portal. "Under the right to information (RTI) act 2005, all government bodies are supposed to publish information about their projects on their portals. Hence, I asked them about the list of such projects they had put on the website in the last 30 days," says Ghanekar.
However, the department did not provide any information and in May 2017 Ghanekar filed an appeal with the assistant director, town planning department. But there was no response.
Hence, in July 2017 he filed a second appeal with the state information commission, Konkan region. On February 14, 2018 during a fast track hearing the commission directed KDMC to pay Ghanekar Rs 10,000 as compensation for all the inconvenience caused to him.
In July this year, KDMC's deputy commissioner Vijay Pagare asked the town planning department to pay him the said amount. "But I am still waiting for my cheque and there is no correspondence from KDMC yet," he says. When contacted Prasad Thakur, public relations officer, KDMC said he is not aware of the issue.