Furnish details of land given to SC/STs, Tribal dept told

CHENNAI: The State Information Commission (SIC) directed the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department Director to upload the details of lands allotted to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes on government websites.

State Information Commissioner S Muthuraj issued the direction while hearing a plea by E Kumar, a resident of Ayappakkam, Chennai, who moved the commission contending that the general information officer, AD and Tribal Welfare, Ponneri region, denied information under the Right to Information Act.

The petitioner had asked for the list of beneficiaries who got land from the department in Pothur village in Ambattur Taluk on March 4, which the information officer did not disclose. “Even as I preferred for an appeal before the SIC, the general information officer who is also the Tahsildar (AD Welfare Department) had not given me the details,” Kumar submitted.

Recording the submission, the State Information Commissioner said the commission was receiving many applications seeking the details of lands allotted to SC/ST people.

“The commission wants the Director, AD and Tribal Welfare Department’s Chennai zone, to upload the details on the website indicating as to identify the beneficiaries from the SC/ ST section who had received land,” the Commissioner directed.

He further asked the Director, AD and Tribal Welfare Department, to file a report within two weeks explaining the actions taken for publishing the beneficiaries’ details on websites.

The matter was posted on January 19.