IF YOU think that the Right to Information Act (RTI) has provided you with the freedom to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, consistent with public interest try asking LDA.
The development agency it appears is still to come to terms with the idea of sharing information with the citizens. Not even if the information being sought is consistent with public interest. To test the efficacy of the Act that came into force on October 12, 2005, HT Lucknow Live posed three questions to the civic body last week on issues that not only affect the city at large but also come under public domain.
After mulling the queries for over a week, mandarins at the LDA rejected all the three applications stating that the information was either unavailable or never gathered in the context in which it was sought.
Sample this. The LDA was asked how many completion certificates were issued by it to the commercial complexes in the past year? For the uninitiated, the development body is supposed to provide completion certificate to buildings in order to ensure that the construction has been done in accordance with the building plan approved by it.
Here’s the response of the city’s development regulator. “In response to your query about the number of completion certificates issued to commercial complexes in the city in the year 2005, we would like to inform you that this information is comparative and is not compiled by the department. Hence it would not be possible to provide the same,” states the reply signed by assistant Public Information Officer of LDA Uma Shankar Singh. If you cannot make a head or tail of it, forget it, neither could we.
{{/usCountry}}Here’s the response of the city’s development regulator. “In response to your query about the number of completion certificates issued to commercial complexes in the city in the year 2005, we would like to inform you that this information is comparative and is not compiled by the department. Hence it would not be possible to provide the same,” states the reply signed by assistant Public Information Officer of LDA Uma Shankar Singh. If you cannot make a head or tail of it, forget it, neither could we.
{{/usCountry}}The second question related to the number of plots allotted to people’s representatives and bureaucrats by the department in the last one-year? The answer: “We do not allot plots to individuals on the basis of their vocation. Nor do we seek any such information from the applicant in our application form.”
Pray, how then did the department went public with a long list of names of bureaucrats and politicians who were allotted plots in a similar manner by previous regimes immediately after the controversial Vipul Khand plot allotment issue hit the headlines.
Lastly, the development agency was asked about the number and kind of land uses of Master Plan 2001 were changed by it in the Master Plan 2021 of the city?
“The information sought is available in the Master Plan booklet, which is available in the LDA store and can be purchased from there,” was the only coherent reply furnished by the agency. It is evident from the LDA’s behavior that the RTI remains a stillborn baby and that it would take a long time for authorities in charge to get used to sharing information/documents with the citizens.