RTI misused to fleece builders ?

The Times of India: Thane: Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

Municipal commissioner RA Rajeev's decision to suspend an executive engineer in the town planning department last week has exposed the nexus between officials and "professional complainants'' who misuse the RTI law for extortion and harassment.

The alleged "criminal conduit'' between executive engineer Ajit Karnik and a local RTI activist Mukesh Kanakia was exposed after the technocrat reportedly asked a Naupada-based doctor to pay Rs 2.75 lakh to Kanakia to get him to withdraw his complaint about a nursing home being set up in a residential flat here.

"It is a case of collusion. As an executive engineer Karnik is tasked with the key role of scrutinizing building plans, verifying legal papers and recommending sanctions for construction projects. He choose to be a go-between Kanakia and the doctor for which he would get his share of the money,He has betrayed the trust by stooping to such low levels of mediating in corrupt practices,'' a bureaucrat said.

The episode, however, has opened a Pandora's Box of the goings-on in the town planning department here which has been accused of being the hotbed of corruption in the Thane corporation.

Observers here said such "profit-motivated activism'' misusing the RTI law has become a reality backed with the active support and involvement of civic officials here.

"There are habitual complainants here who file Right To Information applications seeking specific details about a building plan or the modified building plans.

"Without the involvement of a department insider it is difficult for people to point out loopholes.

"The architect or a builder is informed by the town planning staff about the RTI concerning his project and ask him to silence the complainant by paying him to withdraw his complaint. It is a major racket here,'' an official said on condition of anonymity.

Explaining the modus operandi of so-called RTI activist, an official said most of the complaints in the town planning department are related to projects which are underway either without a commencement certificate (CC) or without waiting for a plinth certificate (PC).

"These are procedural irregularities and it involves a fine. But only those who are familiar with town plans know these irregularities. A significant number of buildings in Thane do not have an occupation certificate (OC) and RTI queries are made in specific cases seeking a status report about the OCs and the intention here is to make the builders pay,'' the official said.