The order, passed on January 21, is considered a landmark since it is the first to take on the administration for the way it collects and holds data that can be sought under the RTI Act.
The chief information commissioner of Maharashtra, Suresh Joshi, has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the city’s two collectors to computerise all land lease data within 21 days. This follows the collector’s and the BMC’s inability to produce information on lease data sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The order, passed on January 21, is considered a landmark since it is the first to take on the administration for the way it collects and holds data that can be sought under the RTI Act. Section 4 (a) of the act, which talks about suo motu declaration of information, says that public authorities covered by the act have to maintain information in such a way as to make it easy to share it with the public.
“Every public authority should maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the right to information,” the act specifies.
The RTI applicant, SK Nangia, had demanded information on the total number of plots whose leases had expired. In Mumbai, large tracts of land have been given on lease for extended periods such as 99 and 999 years, and more recently for 30 years, on meagre rentals.
Even though many leases have expired, the government has taken no decision on them. The CIC’s order states that such indecision could be leading to losses worth crores of rupees to the municipal corporation and the state government.
When Nangia filed the application, he did not receive the data as per his requirement. While the suburban collector provided some information, the city collector’s office did not. The information provided was on the total plots on lease. The BMC did not even do that. It merely stated that it had files on 4,176 such plots and that the applicant could come and inspect them.
Reacting to the CIC’s order, Nangia said: “It is dereliction of duty on the part of officers which is leading to losses of thousands of crores to the government. We had asked for similar data earlier, but they have not compiled.”
The CIC order states such compiled information is important for the authorities and will help analyse data and earn higher revenue. It will also help formulate better lease policies. It goes on to state that the “authorities themselves (should) decide on what proforma should be adopted for computerisation of records so that it can be of maximum help to them in future.”
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