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Chandigarh: One department, one RTI question but different, contradictory replies

While the CPIO-cum-administrative officer of the CHB said that no such consultants were hired for various projects, a seven-member committee of all the executive engineers of various divisions of the CHB said that information is not available in a compiled form.

chandigarh housing board, chandigarh city news, chandigarh chb investigation, chandigarh rti, express investigation, indian express Chandigarh Housing Board office in Sector 9. (Express Photo)

How difficult it is to obtain information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the Chandigarh Administration can be gauged from different replies given out by the department —- just to avoid giving out information, it appears. The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) gave contradictory replies to the same question. An RTI application was filed on December 19, 2019, in the CHB asking how many consultants were hired by the housing board for various projects and schemes of the board and the amount given to each one of them for their consultancy.

While the CPIO-cum-administrative officer of the CHB in a reply sent on January 20, 2020, said that no such consultants were hired for various projects, a seven-member committee of all the executive engineers of various divisions of the CHB in a reply sent on the same date — January 20, 2020 — said that information is not available in a compiled form.

This letter signed by executive engineer-I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII stated, “No such information is available in compiled form.” It was a clear case of evading reply as, according to information with Chandigarh Newsline, the board has hired consultants for various projects.

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However, details with Chandigarh Newsline revealed that an architectural consultant has been hired for Block B of the office for Rs 3 crore. It is being done by a Kolkata-based company that has hired consultants for various services.

Then for IT Park’s project, a Chandigarh-based consultant, BY Design, has been hired to give consultancy. Sources said that the company is doing it for around Rs 25 lakh.

Festive offer

Mistral Air Conditioning Services Limited based in Delhi, which had its core competence in ‘central air conditioning and refrigeration’, gave fire fighting consultancy for the Sector 63 housing scheme of the board.

The company’s own details specified that it did “Fire Fighting System for Government Housing Scheme consisting of Multiple Apartment Blocks of 1BR, 2BR, and 3BR apartments at Sector 63, Chandigarh”.

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Interestingly, the company has done heating ventilation and air conditioning for various buildings in different cities but firefighting consultancy mostly for Chandigarh despite having its core competence in central air conditioning and refrigeration. Chandigarh has its own fire department that inspects buildings and tells what is required as per the latest National Building Code norms but the housing board went ahead to take firefighting consultancy from this firm.

Then a consultancy company has been hired for old office building block A and C of CHB, as per details with Newsline.

A senior official of the housing board said, “For buildings, we do require consultants to guide us what all is required to be installed in the buildings, especially when they are new constructions.”

The consultancy was being roped in by the housing board despite the city having institutions like PEC and NITTTR.

Information yet to be furnished

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It was on December 19, 2019, that an RTI application was filed but only three divisions gave a proper reply. The sub-divisions are just shifting the application from the executive engineer to a sub-divisional officer. The applicant has been flooded with 35 such transfer letters but no concrete reply.

While its own sister divisions have given replies on the same application about consultants hired in the last seven years for various projects, executive engineer of CP division 3 told the applicant, “no information can be given to you in this format.” The executive engineer specified that the applicant has to visit this office with a prior appointment and point out the information required.

RTI activist R K Garg said that he has 50 letters that are pending in the engineering wing but no detail has been given to him as yet.

“I even gave money for photocopies as they asked but they haven’t replied to me as yet. They try and evade giving details by putting some or the other clause. They are clearly violating the provisions of the RTI Act 2005,” Garg said.

First uploaded on: 01-02-2020 at 13:59 IST
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