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| CIC directs SMC for making details Public | | Illegal building permissions in Srinagar | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 20: Rejecting the plea of Public Information Officer (PIO) of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) of not being able to provide so called voluminous information about building permissions under Right to Information Act (RTI), to information seekers, the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has directed SMC to make all these permissions public right on the official website. In addition to it the CIC has also directed that information seeker / appellant be allowed to undertake inspection of all the documents what he was asking for under RTI Act. The information seekers who are lawyers by profession have alleged that Commissioner SMC was shielding PIO of SMC for not making details about building permission public
Details available with Early Times reveal that two Advocates of J&K High Court namely Qazi Ayaz and Khud Asfandyar filed a joint RTI application with PIO, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) under Right to Information Act on 09.03.2017 seeking information regarding commercial building permission granted from 2013 onwards till 9.3.2017 in Barbarshah, Nai Sarak, kaka Road, Munwar Abad, Habbakadal areas of Srinagar particularly permission granted in favour of Nana Khan (Hotel name Gulstar) & other hotels constructed in the said area.
The lawyers allege that instead of providing proper information, the Secretary SMC who is also the designated PIO under State RTI Act 2009 in SMC provided wrong and misleading information on 17.04.2017.
The appellant lawyers alleged before the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Khurshid Ahmad Ganai that the Commissioner SMC was shielding the PIO and both the PIO and the FAA are in league & are protecting each other and also shielding other functionaries of the department who have granted permission illegally in favour of many people in violation of Municipal Rules.
The 2nd appeal came up for hearing before CIC Khurshid Ahmad Ganai on 16.01.2017wherein Joint Commissioner Planning SMC (JCP), stated that the information stands already provided to the appellants vide letter dated 13.12.2017 and PIO had appellants that information sought by the information seekers under J&K RTI Act, 2009 is voluminous and is not possible to provide as it involves lot of time and manpower.
CIC's order ruled that the PIO has raised the plea of information being sought as voluminous and that it was not possible to be given. This plea does not appear to be convincing as listing of permission cases of commercial buildings in certain areas of the city from the available record should not require much labour or diversion of resources. In fact, this type of information and such like information should be available suo-moto in terms of Section 4(1) (b) of the J&K RTI Act, 2009. The plea therefore is not convincing and cannot be accepted. Therefore, the SMC is directed to compile and prepare the list of permission cases of commercial buildings in the identified areas where permission has been granted by the SMC since 2013. In addition, the appellant may be allowed inspection of available records for the remaining/balance information, if any, strictly in terms of the information sought and the provisions of the J&K RTI rules, 2012. With the above directions, the 2nd appeal filed before the SIC is disposed off. |
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