Goel Ganga

real estate

Wadgaon Budruk.

Om Prakash Bakoria

Atul Goyal

A letter posted by a Right To Information (RTI) activist on a social networking site on Wednesday has exposed the alleged unethical practices by theGroup of builders. In the letter, thecompany had requested the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to inform the company if anybody seeks any information about its projects through RTI.However, what has irked RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar is that the real estate developer has also demanded that no information should be shared by the civic body without seeking permission from the company. “This is completely illegal and unethical on the part of the developer to write such a letter to the civic authorities. Through this letter, the nexus between the builders and the PMC has been exposed,” said Kumbhar, adding that PMC should keep information about all projects online, but is not doing that.According to the letter, the developer had mentioned about two of his projects and stated that if somebody comes to seek any information through RTI, Goel Ganga Group should be informed first and without the developer’s permission, no information should be divulged to the RTI applicant. On its part, the PMC has clarified that under Section 8-1-G of the RTI Act, the civic body cannot share any information about any RTI query with the entity or person against whom the application has been received.Kumbhar also alleged that there are instances when the developers are already privy to the RTI queries filed with the civic authorities and, once they know that the RTI has been filed against them, they use threatening tactics against the applicant. He claimed to have got a copy of the letter through aperson who had gone to file an RTI application, seeking some information about two projects of the Goel Ganga Developers atApparently, PMC officials had handed over the same letter, which they had received from the developer.PMC’s additional commissionersaid, “I have not seen the letter yet. However, we cannot divulge any information about the RTI query and RTI applicant to the person or entity against whom the RTI has been received as it may pose a threat to the applicant.”, the managing director of the Goel Ganga Group, was not reachable despite several attempts. He did not even reply to the messages sent by this reporter.