NAVI MUMBAI:
Shiv Sena corporator
Kishor Patkar on Saturday came up with a proposal to look into the misuse of the provisions of the RTI Act at the
NMMC
general body meeting and
blacklist
activists who repeatedly seek information from the civic body under the Act, as a means for extortion.
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“RTI Act is meant to expose corruption or wrong practices in the system but it is observed in case of NMMC it has become a way to harass the civic administration and indulge in extortion from the parties concerned. Else, why should anyone file 15 to 20 RTIs in a month with none of them intended to yield any conclusive result,” said the corporator Patkar.
NMMC even sought for the name of the activists who were regularly seeking information under the Act across all departments.
“I have the list of activists filing RTIs repeatedly across all departments. There is an activist Narendra Hadkar and he has filed close to 170 applications at various departments,” said Patkar.
The maximum number of the applications—134— have been filed to the town planning department. “Why would anyone file so many applications if not for malicious intent? Similarly there are many other activist who are using the machinery without any good intention,” asked Patkar.
Mayor J D Sutar has instructed the civic commissioner to look into the matter and take appropriate measures in the lines of steps taken by the Thane Municipal Corporation.
NMMC chief Ramaswami N said that a decision will be taken after studying the system followed in other municipal corporations.
One of the RTI activists, Anarjit Chauhan whose name has been listed in the list of
RTI applicants
who have been filing pleas on a regular basi, described the proposal to blacklist RTI activists as a ploy to restrict his rights.
“It is improper to say that all those seeking information from NMMC has ulterior motives. My work is open for scrutiny and I am also pursuing each of the applications filed with the concerned appellant authority,” said Chauhan.