TNN, Dec 14, 2010,
HYDERABAD: The copy of a building plan in the twin cities comes at a price. Literally. For the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) chief city planner's office has asked an appellant seeking information under Right To Information (RTI) Act to shell out over Rs 3 lakh to get copies of two proposed building plans.
The applicant, MLA A Revanth Reddy, had filed two separate RTI petitions with the GHMC seeking details on the constructions coming up at Botanical Gardens in Kondapur. What he got was a simple response from chief city planner. He was asked to make a payment of Rs 2.39 lakh and Rs 84,460 to get copies of the two separate building plans.
Curiously, the GHMC, in its response to Reddy's RTI petition, has stated that he needs to pay for the query as per the rate of built-up area as decided by GHMC, which is Rs 500 per sqmt for a construction measuring up to 100 sqmt. For divulging information on constructions over 100 sqmt, GHMC charges Rs 150 per sqmt. So, given that the construction at the Botanical Garden measures (on paper) 1,59,063 square metres, the cost of the RTI response was calculated by GHMC as Rs 2.38 lakh. For the second construction at the Botanical Garden for which Reddy had sought details, the GHMC quoted Rs 84,460 given that this construction measures 56,082 sqmt. In addition, he was asked to pay up a total of Rs 500 (for both petitions) for providing copies of the documents of the construction as listed under the RTI Act.
In the first petition, Reddy had sought a copy of the proposed construction of the eco-tourism project with a hospitality block (with cottages, convention centre, hotel, office blocks, merchandise, multiplex and commercial blocks). In the second petition, he sought details of the proposed development of the bird park area consisting of a multiplex and a hotel block at the site.
Claiming to be RTI Act proof, GHMC maintains that anybody challenging GHMC's stand of charging money to share building plans is free to seek legal intervention. "In the past too, people had to pay an amount to get a copy of the building plan. It still remains the same," said Balakrishna, PIO of the chief city planner's office, GHMC.
Predictably, this practice of charging applicants for sharing information on construction plans of any existing or proposed buildings has already earned the GHMC a handsome amount.
But the GHMC is clearly not following the rules listed under the RTI Act. As per the RTI Act, a fee of Rs 2 per page per copy of material in either printed ot text form (A3 or A4 size papers) should be levied. For publications, printed matter, text, maps, plans, floppies, CDs, samples, models or material which the government body has purchased itself, the rule is to charge the appellant the sale price of the document. However, government bodies like the GHMC are allowed to fix a fee for parting with certain information.
But RTI activists fear that such a practice defeats the very purpose of the transparent RTI Act, introduced as a tool to empower citizens with information in matters of public interest. "This is a deliberate step adopted by the municipal corporation to not part with information, more as it involves the sensitive Botanical Gardens land encroachment issue. And because it is impossible for the appellant to shell out so much money to get the documents, the real information will continue to be held by GHMC in particular and the state government in general," said C J Karira, a city-based RTI activist.
But others note that levying a fee could be an attempt by the municipal corporation to cut back on revenue loss, which it is incurring ever since the RTI Act got introduced.
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