The Central Information Commission has directed the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to disclose details of all outstanding dues towards shopkeepers of Palika Bhawan, R K Puram, after it surfaced that dues amounting to Rs 7 crore were pending.
The CIC said the civic body was attempting to keep the information under cover by denying the same under the clause of the RTI Act which exempts information related to commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property unless it involves larger public interest.
"An honest citizen who pays his dues cannot be ignored by a civil body by sparing coercive action and extending tacit support to defaulters. Resistance to recover outstanding dues and efforts to keep the information guarded tend to legitimise the conduct of defaulters, besides causing heartburn to the upright tax payer," Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad said in a terse order.
The RTI applicant who himself is a shopkeeper in the Palika Bhavan, R K Bhavan, has alleged that majority of occupants in the said premises have not been paying the licence fee, which is akin to rent for over decades. He alleged the NDMC had taken no steps to recover the outstanding dues which aggregate to millions of rupees.
He said the office space in the business centre was allotted to the present occupants on leasehold basis.
The NDMC did not send its officials for the hearing despite notices from the transparency watchdog.
"Upon a query from the commission, the appellant states that some of the shops/ commercial spaces were allotted way back in 1980 and a few licencees have not bothered to pay any licence fee since initial allotment. He also talked about the unholy nexus between the defaulter allottees and the officers of New Delhi Municipal Council," Azad said.
The CIC summoned the records of outstanding bills from the NDMC which showed "a rather sordid and contaminated state of affairs at the New Delhi Municipal Corporation", he noted.
The records cited by the information commissioner in his order show that over Rs 7 crore are pending as on September 14 towards 25 shopkeepers in Palika Bhavan.
"A whopping amount aggregating in crores of rupees is pending realisation. The situation is alarming as it has a direct impact on the financial health of NDMC which is entrusted with the maintenance of civic affairs of the national capital," Azad said.
He said the reasons which keep the NDMC from initiating concrete steps towards realisation of outstanding dues cannot be kept under wraps as it affects the maintenance of civic amenities and livelihood of NDMC employees.
Azad said the issue concerned larger public interest and the plead of Public Information Officer (PIO) to withhold information invoking Section 8(1)(d) was not maintainable.
"Details of allotment of public infrastructure to anyone, the terms of allotment and consideration, thereof, is not an exempted information. The PIO is thus directed to furnish complete information within three weeks of receipt of this order," the information commissioner said.
The commission also issued show cause notice to the officials of the civic body for "causing deliberate obstruction in the flow of information".
The transparency watchdog is empowered to levy a penalty up to Rs 25,000 on the erring officer if the person concerned cannot give reasonable justification for his action.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
