Bangalore Mirror; S Kushala; Thu, Apr 14, 2011,
It took a summons, a penalty threat and finally a stinker from the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) to the urban development department (UDD) which comes under the chief minister’s office to give out information under the RTI Act to former CM H D Kumaraswamy about the Bidadi township project. The CMO finally toed the KIC’s line, 78 days after Kumaraswamy sought information about the vexed project. Under the RTI Act, information should be made available within 30 days.
On January 7, Kumaraswamy had sought “information and all records pertaining to withdrawal of deposit amount Rs 400 crore by the DLF regarding the Bidadi township project” from Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA). After a fortnight, his brother and former minister H D Revanna too filed an RTI application for the same information.
And as a knee jerk reaction, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, also the chairman of BMRDA, had called back all files pertaining to DLF and the township and kept them in his custody. “As per oral instructions from the additional chief secretary, the Bidadi project files are being sent to the chief minister’s secretary,” said a note that was sent by BMRDA along with the files.
The chief minister’s land denotification scams were exposed through documents obtained under RTI. The CM must have taken the files into his custody as damage-control. When the Gowda brothers did not get the information they sought even after a month, they appealed to the KIC. The Commission issued a summons to UDD authorities to be present for a hearing.
State information commissioner H N Krishna told Bangalore Mirror, “Even after the summons, the information was not given. The authorities explained to the Commission that BMRDA and UDD had written seven letters to the CMO since January informing them of the RTI query and to send back the project files. But the files remained in CMO’s custody,’’
Finally, on March 14, the Commission ordered the CMO to send back the files to BMRDA within 15 days and furnish information sought by the applicant, failing which a penalty of Rs 25,000 would be imposed along with stringent action.
The Commission had made UDD principal secretary Subhir Hari Singh, CM’s principal secretary I S N Prasad and BMRDA information officer D R Francis Vasanthkumar party to the case. Finally, the information was dispatched to Kumaraswamy on March 26.
The BJP government is trying to revive the Rs 60,000-crore Bidadi Township project two years after DLF, which was shortlisted for the project, exited from the scene after withdrawing its initial security deposit of Rs 400 crore.
DLF was on the verge of signing the concession agreement during the previous Kumaraswamy administration, when the government fell. The project did not proceed further and the promoter backtracked.
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