District Treasury Office Rajouri fire incident
Fate of FIR still not known; officials, others suffering
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU Aug 9: Shocking it may sound but it is a fact that no step has been initiated by the Accounts and Treasuries Department to reconstruct the record which was gutted in the devastating fire at District Treasury Office Rajouri more than four years back as a result of which Government officials as well as others are suffering. Moreover, the fate of the FIR lodged to unravel the mystery behind the incident is not known to the officers of the department.
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These facts came to the fore during the Second Appeal before the Central Information Commission, which was filed by Rajeshwar Singh Jasrotia, who remained posted as Conservator of Forests, Jammu West Circle Rajouri from April 2012 to October 2013. The officer paid his income tax which was deducted at source along with salary of every month and deposited the same with District Treasury Officer, Rajouri.
His grievance before the Central Information Commission (CIC) was that despite paying all due Income Tax he received a notice from Income Tax Department communicating outstanding of tax for the financial year 2012-13 and 2013-14, the period of his posting at Rajouri.
Since TDS was regularly deducted and deposited at District Treasury Office as such he sought information about month-wise details of TDS from the District Treasury Officer Rajouri but complete information was not furnished to him and same was denied on frivolous grounds.
During the course of Second Appeal proceedings, District Treasury Officer Rajouri-cum-Public Information Officer (PIO) submitted that office record room was gutted in devastating fire on the intervening night of 7th and 8th of March 2019. Accordingly, FIR was lodged in the concerned Police Station.
“As the concerned information pertains to financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14, therefore it could not be obtained. Since it was not possible to locate the information sought by applicant due to the fire incident, I did my best to locate the then concerned/ dealing Chartered Accountant but was unable to do so”, the PIO submitted, adding “however, part information was collected from the concerned DDO and some information by hiring a Chartered Accountant as such the case of intentional furnishing of incorrect, incomplete, false, deficient, misleading and contradictory information does not arise. The only delay in providing the information was due to the non availability of the required information”.
This clearly established that no step has been taken to reconstruct the record which was gutted mysteriously even after the lapse of over four years. Moreover, Excelsior, contacted several officials of the Accounts and Treasuries Department but they fanned ignorance about the fate of the FIR although they were supposed to be informed by the concerned Police Station about its disposal.
When contacted, District Treasury Officer Mohd Bashir said, “it is not possible to reconstruct the record as the same was prepared manually. As far as instant case is concerned, if the officer requires the record for Income Tax purpose he should have taken the same from the DDO of his department instead of approaching us”. He too fanned ignorance about the fate of the FIR lodged by the Police.
While disposing of the Second Appeal, the Central Information Commission has directed the PIO to furnish a copy of the latest written submission to the RTI applicant within seven days and accordingly file compliance report. “The PIO is directed to make all out efforts to search the record again and provide the relevant information about in the RTI application to the appellant free of cost”, read the direction of the CIC.
The possibility of other persons like appellant in the instant Second Appeal suffering for want of requisite information from the District Treasury Rajouri cannot be ruled out as such the Accounts and Treasuries Department should initiate steps to reconstruct the record. Moreover, outcome of the FIR should be made public as there were allegations of conspiracy behind the fire incident.
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