Info under RTI took a year to come by

This reporter, who sought to know the status of Narasimha Shastri Kere at Bhoganahalli in Varthur from the Bangalore Urban district revenue administration on June 15, 2010, had to wait almost a year till May 7, 2011, when the officers concerned came up with information on the lake that’s now a barren land.

Government records show that the lake in question was spread across four acres and 28 guntas and that some people later “became owners of the property” and sold it to Anand Kumar Naidu.

The RTI file did not move an inch forward till mid-August last year. Finally, a complaint was lodged with the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) on August 9. As the KIC was short-staffed, the matter came up for hearing only on May 9.

Just two days before the hearing of the case, officers from the KR Puram Taluk office approached the Deccan Herald office with all information pertaining to the lake and pleaded with this reporter to inform the KIC that the required information was furnished within the “stipulated time”. It was only after this that the newspaper learnt that there was a hearing pertaining to the case because the summons sent by the KIC did not reach the Deccan Herald office.

The KIC website did mention that the hearing of the case was on May 9 at 11 am, but said nothing about the court where the hearing would take place, forcing this reporter to run between MS Building and Mythic Society where three out of four courts of the KIC are arranged on a Monday. By the time it was ascertained the hearing was at the Information Commissioner H N Krishna’s court, the matter was closed as the complainant could not make it to the court.