Delaying info costs state dept dear

[karira]

As reported by Viju B in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 10 November 2008:
Delaying info costs state dept dear-Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India

Delaying info costs state dept dear

MUMBAI: The state information commission (SIC) has imposed a penalty on the public information officer (PIO) of urban development department for

delaying information to an RTI activist who had sought the copy of an inquiry report on the Laxmi Chhaya tragedy.

Kandivli resident S K Nangia had filed a query under the RTI act in March this year asking for a copy of the report drafted by a state-appointed committee that investigated the building collapse in Borivli. The seven-storey building came down like a pack of cards on July 19 last year killing 30 residents and injuring 17 others.

"I had filed the RTI query in public interest. But the babus withheld the information for about six months,'' Nangia said, adding that he had filed the RTI query with the BMC's building proposal department.

The civic officials initially said that the files were with state urban development department. "But I informed the officials that under the RTI act, they were supposed to forward it to the department concerned,'' Nangia said. He then filed an appeal after he did not get any response for three months.

But to his dismay the urban development officials said that they had forwarded it back to the municipal commissioner's office. "The civic chief's office then forwarded it to the city engineer with whom I had filed my original RTI query,'' Nangia said.

"This shuttling continued for a few more months and I received six intimations from various authorities about the pending status of my query,'' he said. Finally, Nangia filed a complaint with the SIC under section 18 of the RTI Act in August.

State chief information commissioner Suresh Joshi, after hearing the case, observed that the department should have provided the information in one month's time. "The manner in which the appellate authority of the urban development dealt with the query was appalling. When the query was forwarded to the urban development department, there was no reason for the appeal to be sent back to the BMC. This shows negligence, carelessness and tendency to shirk work on the part of the appellate officer... who had to be reprimanded about the serious lapses in discharge of his duties,'' Joshi, in his order, said.

The SIC also directed the municipal commissioner to inquire into the lapses by the PIO of the City Engineer's office that forwarded the RTI query to the urban development after 26 days. The PIO of the urban development department, Rajesh Govil, has also been penalised for withholding information for a delay of more than 100 days.

[sandeepbaheti]

Yet another instance of media people publishing news on RTI without having proper knowledge of the matter. Anyone with a little knowledge of RTI will know that the penalty is imposed on the PIO personally and not on the department. As such, the title is misleading.