Ahmedabad slum redevelopment a ‘state secret’

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation reportedly has declined to share the minutes of the meetings concerning the municipal slum-redevelopment projects. The statement has been released in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application, elaborating that they are a "state secret" of status no lower than "state cabinet papers, which include deliberations of the council of ministers and secretaries...". This is how the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) views information on its slum-redevelopment initiatives and committee decisions, which are proactively supplied by all municipal corporations in the country under RTI Act Section 4(1)(b). The AMC's opposition is apparent since the committee has been engaged in issues from its formation in 2013, with claims of private developers being "favoured" with "additional" transferable development rights (TDRs). Under the slum rehabilitation programme, the state government declared slum clusters in 2013 and constituted redevelopment committees for public housing developments.