MMRDA wants info chief to pay for housing facilities: RTI

Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Saturday, October 20, 2012.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) wants state information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad to pay Rs1.33lakh for facilities he used between January 2011 and May 2012 at the authority’s official residence, when he was chief secretary (CS). The MMRDA has asked Gaikwad to pay for the telephone, internet, piped gas and electricity charges, which are yet been specified, an Right To Information query has revealed. 

Gaikwad continues to stay at Jaitvan, a plush penthouse in MMRDA’s Bandra-Kurla Complex facility, but the State Information Commission has been paying the charges ever since Gaikwad joined the commission in June this year.

The authority issued recovery letter to Gaikwad on August 22, 2012. Gaikwad said that he has already paid Rs15,536 for the telephone. “I have been paying for this phone all along and will continue to do so.”

But a right to information activist, Anil Galgali, who sought the information from MMRDA, said, “I have urged Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to recover the dues from Gaikwad’s monthly salary.”

Earlier, Galgali had questioned Gaikwad's appointment as information chief. Gaikwad objected stating that, “It’s ridiculous. The CS heads the MMRDA executive committee, which has made the MMRDA residence rent and electricity free for the CS.”