After Adarsh, Ramanand Tiwari in RTI row

Reported by Swati deshpande in timesofindia.indiatimes.com
After Adarsh, Ramanand Tiwari in RTI row - The Times of India

MUMBAI: Retired senior IAS officerRamanand Tiwari, who is facing criminal prosecution in the Adarsh society case, may also face flak for not deciding an appeal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act as the state information commissioner in 2010 within the 45-day deadline.

In fact, the appeal remains undecided almost two years after it was heard. On October 26, 2010, a day after the TOI expose on Adarsh, Tiwari, as the then state information commission, had heard social activist Anandji Joshi's appeal under the RTI. But his order remains elusive, said Joshi, who has since sent three reminders and has now written to Ratnakar Gaikwad, chief information commissioner of Maharashtra, seeking answers for the "inordinate and unwarranted delay."

A defiant Tiwari was suspended in January 2011 as the state information commissioner after he refused to abide by the government's order to quit over his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam. He retired later that year. He was in charge of the urban development department when the 31-storey building got crucial clearances.

The second appeal was against reply of assistant police commissioner (west region) and DCP (zone 9) in Mumbai. In his original application in January 2010, Joshi sought details and status of a criminal case 503/1990. The police had referred to this case in another matter involving an attempted break-in into Joshi's Khar house, he said. He received no details and was instead asked by KMM Prasanna, then designated officer for first appeals under RTI for the police, to approach the state information commissioner.

When Joshi did approach Tiwari, he said he was made to wait three hours beyond his appointed time and said that the commissioner "ended the hearing early" without even seeking the presence of the police officers, when the applicant made enquiries about his son Omkar's connection with Adarsh flat allotments. As it turned out, Tiwari's son Omkar was one of the 103 members of the tainted Adarsh housing society. Joshi, who spoke to TOI, said he received no reply to any of his reminders and even to his recent letter to Gaikwad.

To Gaikwad, Joshi asked if "senior bureaucrats are appointed as information officers to protect their personal interests". Joshi said he had filed complaints with the governor against Tiwari, when he refused to resign. He has asked Gaikwad if his pending appeal would be dealt with fairly or would remain inconclusive forever.

When TOI contacted Gaikwad was his comments, he was not reachable.