In the missing files case, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to fix responsibility on public information officers (PIOs) appointed under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
According to a BMC circular, as PIOs are also designated record officers for maintaining files and documents, they should be held responsible for the lost files. The First Appellate Authority (FAA), appointed under RTI Act, can initiate action against PIOs/record officers in such cases, the circular further stated.
Civic officials said that 10,531 files have been found missing, mostly from the building proposal department. Of them, 87 per cent files belonged to the years before 1991. Interestingly, 1991 was the year when the current development plan came into existence.
With 1,848 files missing from the building proposal department, K-East and K-West ((Andheri, Juhu, Vile Parle and Jogeshwari) are wards where the highest number of files has gone missing. “899 files from the years before 1991 have been retrieved or reconstructed,” said a civic official.