No Rahul, Congress not committed to RTI, says Adarsh society

By Vishwas Waghmode Mumbai: A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi insisted that the Right To Information (RTI) Act is one of the UPA government’s biggest achievements in the past 10 years, the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Mumbai has accused Union Defence Minister AK Antony of refusing to provide vital information regarding the title of the land on which the society stands. Including appeals and second appeals against rejection of information, a society member has written to the MoD under the RTI 50 to 55 times, society members claim. “This Congress government claims it has achieved wonders by passing the Right to Information Act. But the same government is refusing to divulge critical information regarding the Adarsh land, information the general public is interested in knowing and has a right to know,” said RC Thakur, secretary of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society speaking to Firstpost.[caption id=“attachment_1363379” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union Defence Minister AK Antony. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] On Tuesday, the managing committee of the Adarsh society wrote to the union defence minister alleging that the Ministry of Defence under Antony had indulged in a “malicious drive of misleading the country”. While the contention had always been that the society had grabbed land reserved for war widows and families of Kargil war heroes, the letter alleges that the MoD did not peruse its own records before “creating the fallacy before the entire nation that it was a defence land”. The report of the Adarsh Judicial Commission of Enquiry has stated that the land belongs to the state government. The society has now demanded that Antony divulge what directions were issued by the Ministry of Defence to acquire the land and what sanctions were given towards paying for the acquisition, obtaining the possession certificate, title documents, etc, if the MoD had indeed rightfully claimed the land as theirs. “We also call upon you to part with the title documents in respect of the land presently held by our society, which you have failed to do even after the several requests made by us under the RTI Act, an Act of your government, being projected as your greatest achievement but being defiled in practice as you are yourself shying away from following it wherever it doesn’t suit your political agenda by applying Section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act,” says the letter, signed by members of the managing committee. This section pertains to information that could impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders in any case. “As CBI inquiry is over, there should be no cause for not letting the truth prevail,” the letter says. If the information is now not furnished within 30 days, the members of the society would sit on hunger strike, the letter has threatened. Even as the letter took on the minister, it was quick to add that it does not wish to indulge in a blame game with the Congress party, which it says still appears to believe in secularism. People like Antony have, “through their self-centred acts and decisions not only ruined many Congressmen but also dashed to the ground the hopes and aspirations of 104 innocent Indian families, being members of Adarsh, for no fault of theirs”. The letter adds that information relating to the title of the land should be disclosed to the general public especially since the Ministry of Defence has objected to the findings of the judicial commission set up by the Maharashtra government.