CIDC answerable under the RTI Act: CIC

Construction Industry Development Council comes under the Right to Information Act, Central Information Commission has held, rejecting the Council's contention that it was a society, independent of any government funding and not covered under the transparency law.
The website of CIDC describes it as being set up by the erstwhile Planning Commission jointly with the construction industry to take up activities for the development of the Indian construction industry.
The case relates to RTI application filed by activist Subhash Agrawal who did not get any response to his queries related to file notings on setting up of CIDC by the Planning Commission.

The CIDC was not responding to the RTI application.
During the hearing before the full bench of the Commission, it claimed it was a society registered under the Societies Registration Act formed by various constituents of construction industry primarily comprising construction companies and industry associations as per orders of the Planning Commission.
Although CIDC was started with a corpus from the Planning Commission, it claimed that it has now attained self-sufficiency in funds and independent of any government funding and therefore cannot be termed as public authority under the Act.
The Bench comprising Chief Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma and Information Commissioners Sharat Sabharwal and Yashowardhan Azad, said it has been stated by the CIDC that the annual reports of CIDC are presented in Parliament, which indicates that the government exercises control over CIDC.

"The records reveal that the officers of the CIDC are making use of the Planning Commission's name ie by printing the name of 'Planning Commission, Government of India' on their visiting cards, as does the website," it said.