Hearing of RTI appeal on May 22

The First Appellate Authority and the Deputy Commissioner of Yadgir Manoj Jain has fixed on May 22 the hearing of an appeal filed under the Right To Information (RTI) Act regarding the denial of information sought on road widening work taken up in Yadgir.

RTI activist Shaikh Shafi Ahmed had sought the details of the work taken up by the authorities from the Deputy Commissioner and whether a public hearing was held prior to the work, whether public notices were published in newspapers and whether house owners who would be affected had been given any individual notices.

Mr. Ahmed, who sought the details on March 3 this year, received a letter by Mr. Jain addressed to the Commissioner of the City Municipal Council on March 6 transferring the applications filed by Mr. Ahmed with a direction to provide the information sought by the petitioner.

Taking a severe exception to the transfer of the application to the commissioner of the municipal council, Mr. Ahmed filed an appeal on May 2 to the First Appellate Authority questioning the Deputy Commissioner’s decision to transfer the application.

Mr. Ahmed said that the transfer was wrong since the entire road work “was prepared on the advice and direction of the Deputy Commissioners office”.

Further, the petitioner said that the Deputy Commissioner’s office was the competent public authority for all decision-making procedures, conducting public hearing, accessing public opinion, among others.

Mr. Ahmed said that it was the duty of the Deputy Commissioner’s office to publish relevant facts regarding road widening.

All these norms were not taken into consideration before taking up the work , he pleaded.