Civic official fined 25K for not responding to RTI query

Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu information commissioner has slapped a fine of Rs25,000 on P N Prabhakaran, former assistant commissioner of the east zone of Coimbatore corporation, for not providing information under the Right to Information (RTI) act. He is currently, serving as personal assistant to the collector of Tirupur district.
According to the order, Prabhakaran failed to provide information to an RTI query, claiming the files were lost.Moreover, neither a complaint was registered with the police nor action was taken against the officials responsible for the missing file.
The commission has requested the Tirupur collector to ensure that the fine amount is deposited in the government treasury and the receipt is sent to the commission within thirty days.
In 1955, nearly 7.96 acres of land at R K Mills B Colony located in the current Ward 56 of the east zone of Coimbatore corporation was approved and 92 plots were sanctioned. Since the open space reservation (OSR) area was above 10%, a revision was sought and the number of plots was extended to 105 in 1968.
"But a government order was passed stating that the roads and the not-to-be built area near the HT lines should not be developed into plots. Despite this, between 2002 and 2005, the layout was revised and the Local Planning Authority (LPA) approved the revised layout and 13 other plots constructed on 70 cents of land meant for roads and coming under the not-to-be built area. This is a violation," said S P Thiyagarajan, RTI activist.
Producing the old and the new layout, he said that even the area designated for a club was converted into a plot.
Corporation officials said that when the revision was sought, they ensured that 10% of the land was left as reserved site. An official said that a case has been filed by a civic activist and a commission from the high court had recently visited the place to prepare a report.
"They conducted inspections and we have handed over all the documents and the LPA papers. But one particular file in which the layout changes were made in 2005 went missing," said a corporation official.
Thiyagarajan had first filed the RTI in December 2013 and later appealed to the chief information commissioner after the civic body failed to respond in a satisfactory manner. "Until February, 2016, he did not receive any reply from the Coimbatore corporation and again appealed to the information commissioner.
"Since no action was taken against the officials handling the documents, to ascertain if the file was disposed and since there was no FIR filed, the commission issued this order on March 9," said Thiyagarajan. In the order, action has been sought against the then deputy commissioner of the corporation, K Sivarasu, who is now the managing director of Tirupathur cooperative mill in Vellore district.