SIC pulls up Corporation for saying file missing

The Hindu: Coimbatore: Monday, 14 December 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.

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.