RTI Commissioner blocked information on assets: activist

An RTI activist has alleged that Maharashtra Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari, whose son Onkar got a flat in the controversial Adarsh housing complex, stonewalled information on the assets owned by him and other officials who were beneficiaries in the group housing society.

"It has been two years since I applied to his office for the information. I am yet to get it," Pune-based RTI activist Vihar Durve told PTI.

Durve said he repeatedly attempted to obtain information on the assets owned by Tiwari and other senior government officials but his efforts were stonewalled, he said.

Durve said he first applied to the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the General Administration Department of the state government in November 2008.

In December the same year, an undersecretary and PIO of the state government replied that as the officers had retired, the information of their assets could not be made available and that since the information was not in public interest, it was not binding on the state to provide it.

A reply by the PIO said the information on the assets of the officials concerned was destroyed at the level of joint secretary Seema Vyas, who was authorised to destroy it, as the officials had retired from service. Interestingly, Vyas is among the beneficiaries of Adarsh Society.

Durve then appealed before the Information Commissioner in March 2009.

"If the Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi can disclose his assets, what stops the state information commissioner from disclosing theirs?," Durve asked.

Tiwari was unavailable for comments.