DNA: Mumbai: Saturday,
April 05, 2014.
The recent
arrest of a journalist, who was trying to extort money from officials of local
body tax (LBT) department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), has
opened a can of worms on how the Right to Information (RTI) Act, also dubbed as
a sunshine law, is being misused by certain unscrupulous elements under the
garb of activism to allegedly extort money from civic officials and make quick
money.
According to
civic officials, who requested not to be named, "Of the number of
applications being filed under RTI, almost 80% are being done to blackmail
officials and extort money. Engineering and LBT department are the favourite
with those filing RTI."
Another
official added, "Several so-called activists have opened their own offices
and have been filing RTI one after another. After information that has been
obtained is that these activists meet the concerned official to strike a deal
and many a times the amount settled for is in lakhs. It is also true that some
of our officials have amassed wealth by illegal means and such activists want
to have their share of money."
The official
said, "Normally, if the deal is not getting through, then these activists
threaten to approach the media and the high court with a public interest
litigation. We have such applicants who have filed 200 RTI applications, but
have never followed on the same as they were successful in striking a deal with
the corrupt officials."
A civic
official, who is based in Vashi, on the condition of anonymity, revealed that
even their department had to deal with RTI queries and activists made rounds of
their office to strike a deal. "Several people made rounds of my office to
extort money from me after filing RTI. I was very clear with what I had to do
as I neither indulge in corruption and nor am I going to give in to any demand
of such elements," said the official, who has received several awards at
national level for the contribution to the society.
An RTI activist,
who have been genuinely doing a good job, said, "Everything has two sides.
There are bound to be bad elements who will extort money in the name of this
act. Also, those who are giving into the demands of such extortionist activists
are the ones who have indulged in wrong doing and this is precisely what the
activists are encashing on. The best approach for officials should be to have a
clean image and do clean work. Also, one should not forget that several big
scams have been unearthed due to this act, which is a deterrent for
officials."
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