Pune
Mirror: Pune: Sunday, 07 February 2016.
Everyone at
the civic body, including those to be pinned, 'surprised' why a simple response
that was sought could not be given; no one worried that the omission could cost
them over Rs 3 lakh.
It has been
established time and again that officials at Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
are cold to Right to Information (RTI) queries. But, it now emerges that even
the prospect of having to cough up a fine for failing to respond to such
queries makes no difference to this attitude with reason. The State Information
Commission (SIC) has thrown up its hands, in the case of Bhushan Mane, who has
been chasing a simple response from PMC to an RTI query for three years now.
SIC, it stands exposed, can do no more than send repeated notification to PMC.
Last year, it issued an order to the PMC officials to respond in a week's time
or each of them will have to pay Rs 250 for each day of delay. Over a year has
gone by since, and there is no mechanism in place to ensure the officials pay
up, SIC has admitted in another RTI response to Mane.
Sharing his
three-year-long ordeal, Mane told Mirror, "I decided to start a small
business in the city, for which I wanted land on rent. So, to know whether a
common man can get civic space on rent, I filed an RTI at PMC's city engineer's
office, addressed to the land and estate department and land acquisition
department on December 26, 2012.
I sought
information on five points, but got answers to only four regarding how many
amenity spaces there are under PMC's jurisdiction, what they are been used for
and other general details. But the first and most important point whether a
citizen can get PMC's amenity space on rent for business and, if yes, what is the
procedure of acquiring it was not answered by PMC."
Mane appealed
against the incomplete reply to his RTI petition twice, first to PMC on
February 21, 2013 and then to SIC on March 7, 2013. The appeal was against 12
engineers of PMC's land and estate department, land acquisition department and
building development department. After almost two years, SIC Pune bench
commissioner Ravindra Jadhav ruled in his favour on January 9, 2015, ordering
the civic body to furnish the information within a week by registered post, or
pay a fine of Rs 250 per day for each day of delay.
"Since
the order, I have complained against PMC four times in April, September and
December 2015, and again in January 2016 for not implementing it. Not only was
I kept from the information, engineers of the respective departments were not
even charged the fine that had accumulated owing to more than a year of delay.
Each time, SIC just kept sending one warning letter after another. How long do
I need to do this before I get the details I need?" an exasperated Mane
rued.
Folks at SIC
insisted that they have stuck to protocol and cannot go beyond it. Raviraj
Phalle, deputy secretary of the SIC Pune bench, told Mirror, "I am aware
of this case and have spoken to Mane about it. Last January's order has not
been followed by the 12 PMC engineers responsible. We have sent show-cause
notices to all 12 from the three PMC departments. Till now, only three to four
of them have reverted. We are waiting for replies from the rest as they should
also get a chance to put up their problems. Once we get all the replies, the
case will be put up in front of the commissioner again. Both sides will be
verified and an order given accordingly."
On the onus
of extracting the fine from the errant officials, Phalle drew a blank, saying,
"According to Section 20 (1) of the RTI Act, 2005 either the fine will be
calculated on the number of days of delay or Rs 25,000 for each engineer,
whichever amounts to more."
Vijay
Kumbhar, another activist known for his prolific RTI petitions, pegged it down
to SIC's perpetual laxity, saying, "The SIC employees are themselves not
serious about the RTI applications, their procedures and the orders given by
the commissioner. Many times, the order by the bench commissioner is not
implemented for days or even months. The rulebook says it is SIC's
responsibility to recover the fine amount from the person or body against whom
the order has been issued."
PMC's deputy
commissioner (land and estate) Satish Kulkarni whose department failed to
respond, was interestingly taken aback. "A delay in providing information
for more than three years is strange, especially after SIC's orders. We need to
check why our engineers did not give the desired information. I will look into
this matter personally. Any RTI application and order given by the SIC bench
needs to be addressed as top priority and we are responsible for it," he
said.
Municipal
commissioner Kunal Kumar, too, expressed his customary wonder. "I am
surprised why our officials have delayed a simple RTI reply for almost four
years. If they are found guilty by the SIC, they must be fined. I will also run
a thorough check on this issue. In 2008, we had issued guidelines over giving
PMC spaces and lands for use on rent, lease or sale. It cannot be given
directly to any person and there is a certain procedure for it, in which
tenders are called for if we have to rent or lease any of our land or amenity
space," he stressed.
Even thecity
engineer Prashant Waghmare sounded perplexed, "The information asked by
the applicant is straight and simple. According to the new guidelines, we
cannot give our land to individuals for business purposes. In this case, I am
surprised why there was so much delay in giving this information. I was not
aware of this and will get the details from my department. The information will
be given to the applicant as early as possible." So much for the 'simple'
answer, but it seems Mane is in for quite a run for his money.
I am
surprised why our officials delayed a simple RTI reply for almost 4 years. If
they are found guilty, they must be fined. I will also run a thorough check :
KUNAL KUMAR, PMC commissioner.
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