A reply to a Right To Information (RTI) query from Kizhakkambalam grama panchayat in Ernakulam, the sole local body governed by a corporate group in Kerala, has puzzled many on social media and created a controversy. To the RTI queries on whether a plant started by Kitex Garments — the company whose CSR wing governs the panchayat — follows rules and regulations, the local body has replied that there is ‘no information available’ with the panchayat on it.
Following this, many including the activist who filed the RTI, have come out alleging that such a reply is intended to help the company avoid revealing the facts about pollution caused by the bleaching and dyeing plant of the company.
The RTI filed by Aluva native M Khalid Mundappilly on December 21 last year had 10 questions, including these: Whether the company has applied for licence for the bleaching and dyeing plant from the local body, whether they were granted a licence, whether it was renewed, whether chemical treatment plant was built to treat effluents, whether licence was given to three other similar plants of the company and whether all the plants followed rules and regulations of Pollution Control Board and Health department.
However the panchayat secretary wrote “no details available” against each of the ten questions in the answer to the queries dated January 19.
“This is in violation of the right to information of the citizens and is an insult to the Parliament-passed law of RTI,” wrote M Khalid Mundappilly on Facebook. He also alleged that such a reply was given to help the owner of Kitex.
“Due to the harmful chemicals that are released from the four bleaching and dyeing plants of the company, drinking water is polluted and agriculture is destroyed in the 30 kilometre radius around the plants,” wrote M Khalid.
When TNM reached out to panchayat secretary Shajimon Kavu, to find out the reason for the reply, he stated that there were technical errors in the questionnaire justifying the replies given.
“For instance, the name of the company is written as ‘Kitex company’ in the query, but there is no company registered in that name,” he said. The company goes by the official name Kitex Garments Ltd.
The secretary added that there were other similar technical errors. “I have given the reply as per what is prescribed in the RTI Act,” he told TNM.
Meanwhile, many have taken to social media slamming the reply, alleging that there is no transparency in the panchayat.