MMRDA info officer fined Rs5,000 for acting dumb
Mumbai: The RTI query to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA): Has it given the water department permission to lay a water pipeline at Marol Naka signal? The reply: We do not understand your question.
Angered by this poor response, chief information commissioner SV Joshi recently directed the executive engineer of MMRDA to pay a fine of Rs5,000.
The issue dates back to 2007 when the civic hydraulic department decided to improve the water connectivity at this junction, a work which had been pending for the past five years. As construction of the Andheri-Ghatkopar metro had begun, the water department sought MMRDA and the traffic departments permission to dig at the signal.
Since MMRDA did not respond to the departments requests, I filed an RTI on July 31 last year to know the status. To my surprise, MMRDA, after almost 40 days, replied that my question is not clear, said Ravi Nair, a resident of Marol Naka who filed the RTI. And this, after the MMRDA conducted an inspection of the site after his query was filed.
Nair then filed a second appeal, and on March 19, the information commissioner fined the executive engineer, who is the public information officer in MMRDA.
The MMRDA spokesperson did not respond for comments.