Firstpost: Mumbai: Wednesday, January 29, 2014.
A day after
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi insisted that the Right To Information
(RTI) Act is one of the UPA government’s biggest achievements in the past 10
years, the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Mumbai has
accused Union Defence Minister AK Antony of refusing to provide vital
information regarding the title of the land on which the society stands.
Including appeals and second appeals against rejection of information, a
society member has written to the MoD under the RTI 50 to 55 times, society
members claim.
"This
Congress government claims it has achieved wonders by passing the Right to
Information Act. But the same government is refusing to divulge critical
information regarding the Adarsh land, information the general public is
interested in knowing and has a right to know," said RC Thakur, secretary
of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society speaking On Tuesday, the managing committee of
the Adarsh society wrote to the union defence minister alleging that the
Ministry of Defence under Antony had indulged in a "malicious drive of
misleading the country".
While the
contention had always been that the society had grabbed land reserved for war
widows and families of Kargil war heroes, the letter alleges that the MoD did
not peruse its own records before "creating the fallacy before the entire
nation that it was a defence land". The report of the Adarsh Judicial
Commission of Enquiry has stated that the land belongs to the state government.
The society
has now demanded that Antony divulge what directions were issued by the
Ministry of Defence to acquire the land and what sanctions were given towards
paying for the acquisition, obtaining the possession certificate, title
documents, etc, if the MoD had indeed rightfully claimed the land as theirs.
"We also
call upon you to part with the title documents in respect of the land presently
held by our society, which you have failed to do even after the several
requests made by us under the RTI Act, an Act of your government, being
projected as your greatest achievement but being defiled in practice as you are
yourself shying away from following it wherever it doesn’t suit your political
agenda by applying Section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act," says the letter,
signed by members of the managing committee. This section pertains to
information that could impede the process of investigation or apprehension or
prosecution of offenders in any case.
"As CBI
inquiry is over, there should be no cause for not letting the truth
prevail," the letter says. If the information is now not furnished within
30 days, the members of the society would sit on hunger strike, the letter has
threatened.
Even as the
letter took on the minister, it was quick to add that it does not wish to
indulge in a blame game with the Congress party, which it says still appears to
believe in secularism.
People like
Antony have, "through their self-centred acts and decisions not only
ruined many Congressmen but also dashed to the ground the hopes and aspirations
of 104 innocent Indian families, being members of Adarsh, for no fault of
theirs".
The letter
adds that information relating to the title of the land should be disclosed to
the general public especially since the Ministry of Defence has objected to the
findings of the judicial commission set up by the Maharashtra government.
.JPG)
.JPG)
