Mumbai:
The Right To Information or RTI is one tool meant to nail the corrupt. But what if a person in position within the RTI is involved in the Adrash Society scam?
A Pune-based RTI activist has alleged that Maharashtra Information Commissioner, Ramanand Tiwary, stonewalled information on assets of his son, who owns a flats in the Adarsh Housing Society.
"In 2008 I had sought property details of Information Commissioners in Maharashtra. My two appeals were rejected. Ramanand Tiwary who was the Information Commissioner then. His son has got a flat in Adarsh Society. My request to the government is to sack Ramanand Tiwari for double standards and also for indulging in corrupt practices," said Vihar Durve, RTI Activist.
Documents with NDTV show, as Urban Development Secretary, Tiwari played a crucial role in the making of Adarsh.
In 2004, at a meeting with the then Urban Development Minister Sunil Tatkare, it was Tiwari who suggested that the land reserved for a bus depot should be allotted to the society.
He also advised the society promoters to apply for the land under the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practice Act (MRTP), which will ensure them more building space. So instead of the original plan of 71, they could build 104 flats.
It was the Urban Development Department, headed by Tiwari, that gave a direct green clearance to Adarsh Society, without the mandatory approval of the Union Ministry. In the process it also bypassed state authorities, who must look into any project coming up in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).
When contacted, Tiwari told NDTV, "I don't remember what I wrote on the files. The inquiry is on so I won't say anything."