Citizen uses RTI, exposes building violation; 2 BMP officials fined

Citizen uses RTI, exposes building violation; 2 BMP officials fined
The Times of India

Bangalore: One citizen versus the establishment.
Using the potent tool of Right to Information Act (RTI), a citizen C N Kumar, has exposed the “irresponsibility’’ of the BMP in granting permission to an upcoming construction at Mountain Street near Madhavan Park, Jayanagar. The BMP granted permission to a builder for construction of a 14-storey building which is apparently a violation of the National Building Code. For a road width of 12 mts at Mountain Street, blatant permission has been granted to construct a 14-storey high-rise. Because the BMP has taken into account an adjacent road, conjoined the two roads, made them one — which means the road width increases to 19 mts — and given an aye!
When Kumar, also an active member of a residents organisation Force, brought this up with the Karnataka Information Commission, chief information commissioner K K Misra has taken cognisance of the lapse and slapped a token penalty on two officials of the BMP — Harsh Gupta, in-charge engineer-in-chief, and Topagi, joint director of Town Planning.
The complainant, while bringing to fore BMP’s lapses, has also alleged that information doled out was misleading and that it was much delayed.
There was trouble brewing for the construction right from the stage of building plan sanction. The Director General of Police too has slapped a stern letter on the developers when they got to know about a 14-storey structure on a 12-mt road. “Comply with the requirement and furnish a compliance report to carry out re-inspection of the premises by a team of officers of Fire and Emergency Services. Failure to provide the required 12 mts of road may lead to the withdrawal of the NOC,’’ says the letter, a copy of which is available with The Times of India.
Harsh Gupta, who has to cough up the penalty, acknowledges there has been a hiccup in granting the building plan. “We have brought this to the attention of the commissioner, there seems to be some fraud at work for this construction,’’ he says. However, the plan was sanctioned six months ago, under a different engineer.
Here’s to RTI then.