Missing drain info: Officials face action

Bangalore Mirror‎‎‎‎‎‎‎: Bangalore: Saturday, May 28, 2016.

RTI request on encroachment of an SWD in Bommasandra pending for 2 years.

The Anekal tahsildar and his predecessor in office are facing disciplinary action for 'dodging' a Right to Information (RTI) request for the last two years. The RTI application from January 2014 had sought information on an encroached storm water drain (SWD) in Bommasandra.

According to sources, one D Muniyappa had sought information pertaining to the storm water drain that had passed through survey nos 209, 210, 212, 203 in Bommasandra village. The information pertained to an encroachment complaint to the enforcement wing of the Special DC's office from August 2013. However, the public information officer and the Anekal taluk tahsildar did not provide this information.

The applicant had then filed his first appeal in February 2014. The commission had first issued a notice to the tahsildar's office in January 2015.

Repeated directions, notices and penalties on the tahsildar's office for two years only revealed that they had no information on the storm water drain. For the delay in providing information, the commission had also penalised the former tahsildar, B Mallikarjun, Rs 10,000. Subsequently, Anil Kumar, the current tahsildar, was asked to be present before the commission and provide information.

This helped little and the commission had condemned the delay and had issued a show-cause notice, asking why a disciplinary action should not be initiated.

"Respondents' repeated absence for the hearings and not providing information has been affecting the court's precious time. Further, it has been found that neither information is being provided, nor the compensation," state information commissioner L Krishna Murthy had observed in his order.

The commission, in two years of hearing on the storm water drain, had also directed the tahsildar's office to compensate the complainant with Rs 1,000 for the inconvenience caused.

Hearing nothing from the office on the issue, the commission is now considering disciplinary proceedings against the officials, noting that storm water drain was an important issue.

"Such an attitude from officials only defeats the purpose of the RTI Act. It's more serious here as the issue pertains to a storm water drain, which are being given utmost importance,"Murthy said.