Live
- Tight security arrangements at Group-II examination centers District SP
- Alia Bhatt captures attention in white
- Varun Dhawan talks about ‘Baby John’
- ‘Moonwalk’ trailer promises a quirky heist, love, and loyalty
- Combat leaf spot disease
- Ahsaas Channaopens up about her complex character in ‘Mismatched 3’
- Radhika Apte welcomes first child, shares heartfelt post
- Jacqueline dazzles at Da-Bangg Reloaded concert
- Time to boost measures to prevent drowning, save children: WHO
- TDP achieves milestone with 73 lakhs membership registration, says Chandrababu
GHMC shying away from RTI?
It’s been more than a year that an RTI was filed with the GHMC seeking details of educational qualifications of its staff. While the civic body failed to respond to it,
It’s been more than a year that an RTI was filed with the GHMC seeking details of educational qualifications of its staff. While the civic body failed to respond to it, an appeal was made to the State Information Commission (SIC). Shockingly, the SIC ‘Disposed Off’ the query without even giving it a hearing
Is the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) shying away from making public the educational qualifications of its staff? An RTI application filed with the office of the chief city planner, GHMC, seeking qualifications of the department’s technical and non-technical staff on June 18, 2013, has still not been disposed. The query was posed by Azeemuddin Asad in light of poor quality of engineering works like bad roads and water clogging.
The premise of the query was, “The service records of most of the officials is bound to reveal that they are under-qualified and ineligible to handle the huge responsibilities they undertake with the tax-payer’s hard earned money.”
After four months of silence, Azeemuddin Asad appealed to the Appellate Authority on October 20, 2013.
Detailing how Azeemuddin had to undergo a lot of trouble to extract information, Dr Lubna Sarwath, a member of SOUL ( Save Our Urban Lakes ), said, “While the Public Information Officer (PIO) and Appellate Authority failed to give the relevant information, the Commissioner’s office failed to extract information and give it to the citizen. On March 27, 2014, the Information Commission directed the chief city planner to give information within 15 days. But the order was not adhered to. Aggrieved, the petitioner made a plea to the State Information Commission on May 21, 2014 invoking Section 20(1) to impose penalty on the GHMC. But there has been no response.”
On September 15, 2014, Azeemuddin was told that his showcause notice was pending, as there were 90 other complaints from 2013 before his grievance could be heard. But later, to his shock, the State Information Commission website noted that the petition was ‘disposed off’.
Reacting to this, Lubna said, “I had a bitter experience with the GHMC, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and other government agencies, where the RTI applications do not yield any results even after waiting for many years. The purpose of creation and existence of the RTI Act has been defeated.”
She asked the State Information Commission to clarify the status of the RTI application and demanded an explanation as to why penalty was not imposed on the GHMC.
