A classic case of efforts by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials to dissuade citizens from seeking details under the Right To Information (RTI) Act has come to light.
On September 3, Aftab Siddique (48), prominent activist from Khar, sent an RTI request to the municipal commissioner, seeking information about the number of Ganpati mandal permissions this year.
The commissioner’s office replied on September 10, directing her to apply to the deputy commissioner (removal encroachment) and deputy commissioner Zone II.
Accordingly, she appealed to both the deputy commissioners. The deputy commissioner (removal of encroachment) Anand Wagralkar informed her on November 8 that, as per a circular issued by the BMC, the information can be had only from the deputy commissioner Zone II, Kishore Kshirsagar.
Kshirsagar is the nodal officer for all matters related to Ganesh mandals.
Instead of collating the necessary information from the ward officers and providing it to Siddique, Kshirsagar gave copies of her application to all the 24 ward officers of Greater Mumbai. Siddique was shocked when 10 of the ward officers called her the same day -- on November 27.
``How am I supposed to be present at 10 ward offices the same day? This is nothing but an effort to sabotage my RTI,’’ she told dna on Wednesday.
“Kshirsagar has failed in his duty to obtain the information and pass it on to me,’’ she added.
Kshirsagar was unavailable for comment. His office said he was busy on a tour of the wards in zone II. Siddique said she wanted the information since several illegal Ganesh pandals were put up.
Noted RTI activist Anil Galgali said this was nothing but sheer harassment of honest citizens by the BMC.
``The spirit of the RTI Act is destroyed by such hostile attitude. Even though Kshirsagar may not be the primary Public Information Officer (PIO) under the law, he could have easily parted with the information, which must have been with him in his capacity as the nodal officer for Ganesh mandals,’’ he observed.
“The problem is that assistant engineers at the ward level have been made PIOs and the first appellate authority is the executive engineer. Ideally, the ward officer should be the PIO and the first appellate authority should be the deputy commissioner. But the Act has been made a mockery by a series of GRs, which have gone unchallenged,’’ he added.
Another activist said BMC officials often call RTI applicants to their office and dump a pile of files before them and will ask the applicants to ferret out whatever information they want. This is clearly illegal because it is the job of the PIO to collect the information and pass on to the applicants.
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