There are right to information (RTI) applicants who invoke the sunshine law for the sake of getting information but there are those who use the information to fight for a social cause until it reaches the logical end.
In the past two weeks, the Bombay High Court (HC) ordered the divisional commissioner of Pune to take appropriate action on the haphazard construction of two metro stations that are illegally encroaching on the road width and, in another petition, the HC also ordered the setting up of a committee to look into indiscriminate and illegal constructions on Pune’s flood lines.
Incidentally, on 10 July 2024, the Maharashtra state irrigation department promptly formed the committee as ordered by the Bombay HC, to make a blueprint for the contentious issue of building constructions on demarcated flood lines that pose a danger of flash floods in the city. This would also question the construction violations of the ambitious river flood development (RFD) inaugurated by the prime minister.
The expert committee will be headed by the additional chief secretary of the department of water resources development which shall formulate a plan for conducting the comprehensive review of the flood line demarcation in the city of Pune. The committee shall also prepare a blueprint for conducting the said review and shall also determine the human resources to be deployed for the said purpose, says the circular.
Activist Sarang Yadwadkar, who has been warning of and campaigning against indiscriminate constructions on small and big water bodies of Pune that will threaten the lives of citizens during the monsoon and create immense water shortage, says, “I have filed over 100 RTI applications in the last few years to get documentary evidence of the permissions given by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) which violate the norms of constructing over sensitive flood lines of the Mula and Mutha rivers. This has helped me in making my cases to the National Green Tribunal and the Bombay High Court, more powerful.”
Activist Qaneez Sukhrani, who is also a veteran in persistently filing RTI applications for varied issues like roads, solid waste management, bus rapid transport (BRT) and now metro, has used these PMC-certified documents to win court cases. In the most recent case, she found that the Pune metro authorities have begun constructing the Ramwadi and Yerwada metro stations on Nagar Road, without appropriate permissions from the civic body. Thus, the road carriage width as also footpaths would shrink in size.
The averments made in the petition primarily highlight the traffic and congestion at Nagar Road on account of the construction of these two metro stations without adequate planning by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), in the construction.
Specific grievances include the failure to provide adequate parking facilities at these stations, and poorly located staircases and escalators which have narrowed the navigable carriageway of Nagar Road, thus exacerbating traffic congestion. Additionally, the indiscriminate dumping of construction debris and garbage during and after the construction phase has further aggravated the situation.
The counsel representing PMC has submitted to the Court that the construction is in a very advanced stage and it is likely to be completed soon and to entertain any complaint at this juncture would be completely uncalled for.
However, the HC has sternly ordered that “The divisional commissioner of Pune division should look into the said grievances and take appropriate and suitable decision and action,” within two months of the order that was passed on 24 June 2024.
Ms Sukhrani says she has to now further follow up with the divisional commissioner; otherwise it will all be forgotten.
Both these issues have created a stir in the civic corridors as its officials have unabashedly given illegal permissions or overlooked them. It is indeed, remarkable, how Pune, which is brimming with intrepid activists, uses RTI to bring out the truth and put the authorities on the mat.
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife. She is also the convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".)