Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 20: In response to a second appeal filed by an RTI activist seeking details of the encroachment on forest land in Jammu, the State Chief Information Commissioner has directed the concerned Divisional Forest Officer to provide full information to the applicant by March 6 and also upload the information on its website.
The CIC also pulled up the DFO, who is the First Appellate Authority, for neither appearing before the Commission nor informing about his inability for the same.
The RTI activist, identified as Mohd Ayub of Mahore in Reasi, has sought information
about the persons who have constructed houses, shops and converted the forest land into their plots, the officers under whose tenure the land was encroached upon, the action taken by the Department to remove the illegal encroachments since 1992 and latest position of forest land, etc.
In response to the RTI application, the PIO passed the order but the same was not received by the information seeker on account of non-availability of the addressee. As the
Appellant did not receive order, he filed first appeal before the FAA on November 9, 2012 but there was no response during the stipulated time.
In response to the second appeal by the RTI activist, the Commission observed that the order passed by the PIO was not in accordance with the points of information sought by the appellant. Complete information be provided to the applicant within 20 days besides sending a copy of compliance to the Commission within 25 days, the CIC said in his order.
Interestingly, the Commission has also sought to know from the applicant for what use the information would be used after the same is received by him.
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