CHANDIGARH, June 5 -- The Punjab State Information Commission (PSIC) has expressed serious concern over the inability of the Amritsar municipal corporation (MC) to trace official records relating to Ganpati Tower, a prominent five-storey commercial complex on Lawrence Road, while raising larger questions about the civic body's capacity to detect and act against illegal constructions and violations of building norms.

In a strongly worded order, chief information commissioner Inderpal Singh criticised the repeated stand taken by the town planning wing of the municipal corporation that sanctioned building plans and related records could only be retrieved through general registration (GR) numbers or specific file numbers, and not through the...