The Hindu: Coimbatore: Tuesday, December 15, 2015.
State
Information Commission has pulled up the Coimbatore Corporation for replying
‘file missing’ to a Right To Information (RTI) query that sought details
regarding changes to a layout plan.
The
Commission cannot accept the then Public Information Officer’s reply that the
nine-year-old file is missing. The officer should have either forwarded the RTI
query to another branch/office of the Corporation or at least should have
lodged a complaint with the police saying that the file is missing, it has said
in an order in October this year.
‘Trace the
file’
The
Commission has also directed the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner to visit
the office concerned, trace the missing file and ensure that the RTI applicant,
S.P. Thiyagarajan, gets to see it.
Thereafter,
the Commissioner should, within 30 days of the receipt of the order, report to
it the progress, the Commission said.
The
Commission has also asked the Commissioner to also file an affidavit containing
the details of the file, who was the custodian of the file, whether the
Corporation has lodged a police complaint about the missing file, and if not,
the reason.
Though the
Commission has directed the Corporation to make available the file to him, the
civic body is yet to act on it. He is waiting to see the file, says the
applicant Mr. Thiyagarajan.
He has been
pursuing the matter since 2013.
In December
2013 he sent a query under the RTI to the then East Zone Assistant Commissioner
saying that he likes to see file 3725/04, which pertains to changes made to the
layout developed by the Peelamedu Industrial Cooperative Society.
The Society,
wanting changes to the approved layout, had moved the State Government, which
had rejected the same in August that year. But subsequently, the Society had
managed to get a Government Order that permitted certain changes.
Based on the
order, the Society had altered the plan in such a way that space earmarked for
public purposes had been sold, alleged Mr. Thiyagarajan, adding that the
missing file had the necessary details.
Coimbatore
Corporation sources said that the civic body had complied with a good number of
directions the State Information Commission had given and also reported the
developments. But it had not been able to show the file to the applicant.
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