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.