Mumbai: Slums redeveloped into housing society to come under RTI for more transparency

Mumbai: The slums redeveloped into housing societies under Slum Rehabilitation Authority have been brought under Right To Information Act (RTI) in order to bring more transparency. The state Information Commission has declared these to be public authorities under 2 (h) of the RTI act.

On 19 December, 2017, the Chief Information Commissioner of Maharashtra had passed an order stating that all the societies built under SRA are public authority. The order also stated that the SRA authority are required to appoint a public information officer as well as the First Appellate Authority (FAA) under RTI. This order was passed after an application was made by Jayprakash Page on the said date. He had sought details of the total number of flats in his society.

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“He had filed an RTI application after he was provided with wrong details pertaining to total number of flats. He needed transparency within the concerned system,” said an official. “The Chief Executive Officer of SRA has been asked to appoint a public information officer from the society and an addition also an officer who would be the FAA,” said an official from State Information Commission.

The official who would be appointed as the public information officer would be required to provide timely information to the RTI applicants. “The official would be charged fine upto Rs 25,000 in case they fail to provide timely information,” added the official. With societies falling under RTI, they are set to receive benefits from the SRA scheme which includes an extra Floor Space Index. It also states that the members of the housing society would benefit as the house could not be sold for 10 years once it comes under RTI.