Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 4: State Information Commission has imposed penalty of Rs 25,000 on former Executive Officer-cum-PIO of Municipal Committee Bandipore for denying information to an applicant, which is an attempt to defeat the very purpose of ensuring transparency and accountability in the working of public authorities.
According to an order issued by the Commission, one Mehraj-ud-Din Bhat had filed an RTI application under Section 6 of State RTI Act, 2009 before the PIO/Executive Officer of Municipal Committee Bandipora, Abdul Rashid on March 5, 2011 seeking list of employees appointed till March 31, 2006 with full particulars.
In accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of the RTI Act, the PIO had to provide this information as expeditiously as possible but not later than 30 days which was not done. Having failed to receive any information, the appellant filed first appeal before FAA—Director Local Bodies, Kashmir on March 10, 2011, which was also not adjudicated by the FAA forcing the appellant to file second appeal before the Commission on August 5, 2011.
During hearing, penalty proceedings under Section 17 of the RTI Act were initiated and the PIO was directed to explain why penalty may not be imposed on him for not passing the order from April 5, 2011 to the date of actual order being passed.
In his explanation to the Commission, the PIO requested to drop the penalty proceedings on the plea that the delay in providing the information has not been made deliberately and the information sought has been kept ready and will be furnished to the applicant on the deposit of copying charges.
After going through the explanation of the PIO, the Commission observed, “the PIO has brazenly overlooked the provisions of the RTI Act. The plea that the PIO wanted the information seeker to visit his office and collect information speaks a lot about the intention of the PIO”, adding “the purpose of the RTI Act is that information seeker should not be made to visit Government offices off and on and thus give rise to the allegations of corruption and loitering in the corridors of Government offices has to be discouraged”.
“The PIO has shown his intentions obviously in disregard to the legal obligation. Even requesting the information seeker to collect the information has not been proved by production of any evidence”, the Commission said.
Accordingly, the Commission held Abdul Rashid to be in default and imposed penalty of Rs 25,000 on him. “The present Executive Officer is directed to serve a copy of this order to Abdul Rashid and the Drawing and Disbursing Officer of the Municipal Committee Bandipore will ensure deduction of penalty amount from the salary of Abdul Rashid in two installments from the month of December 2013 and January 2014”, the order said.
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