RTI Fine: Public information officer fined Rs 25,000 for delay, improper reply to RTI query

[Sajib Nandi]

Reported by Binoy Valsan in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Jul 15, 2012
Public information officer fined Rs 25,000 for delay, improper reply to RTI query - The Times of India

COIMBATORE: Coming down heavily on the Coimbatore Corporation, the State Information Commission has levied a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a Public Information Officer of assistant commissioner rank, in connection with the delay and inconsistency in a reply furnished to an RTI query filed by a city resident. The assistant commissioner of the corporation's east zone has also been asked to furnish the details sought in the application within 30 days.

The officer will also have to file a compliance report to the order by appearing in person before the Information Commission in Chennai. The officer has also been reprimanded for not turning up for the enquiry and arriving extremely late almost when the sitting got over on Friday noon.

"The corporation officials seem to be not serious about the RTI Act and its implications. I had to wait for about eight months for them to respond to my application and that too they tried to give inaccurate information," said the RTI applicant, K Ramasubramanian.

Ramasubramanian, a resident of Tatabad near Gandhipuram, had asked for details about a private real estate project on Sowripalayam Road.

The details sought in the application include whether the builder was permitted by the corporation to construct a club house inside the building complex, whether the town planning officer had physically inspected the project site and whether any deviations were noticed in the plan and if any deviations were spotted and rectified by the builders.

The application with 10 queries was initially filed with the Public Information Officer/ Assistant Commissioner east zone on August 11, 2011 when the previous corporation council was in office. Initially, there was absolutely no response to my query and it was just kept idle at the corporation office," Ramasubramanian added.

An appeal was filed on November 10, 2011, before the deputy commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation who is the appellate authority under the RTI Act but this too failed to evoke any response from the civic body.

A second appeal was filed before the State Information Commission detailing the sequence of these events on January 3, 2012, which was accepted and an order was served on the Coimbatore Corporation on March 14 to take appropriate action on the application and provide the information by April 4.

It also categorically stated that the concerned official will be summoned to Chennai.

The applicant in his complaint to the state information commissioner also claimed that Coimbatore Corporation provided misleading facts to meet the April 4 deadline set by the State Information Commission.

"In one of the reply letters, it was stated that the matter was pending before a court and hence cannot be provided to the applicant. They also claimed that they have sent me a reply on December 5, 2012 which was never received by me and the corporation also has nothing to prove that I received the letter since there is no signed courier receipt or anything with them," Ramasubramanian added.

The enquiry conducted by State Information Commissioner T Srinivasan took all these observations into consideration and imposed the penalty on the civic body officials. They have also been warned to ensure that they comply with the RTI Act and furnish accurate information within the 30-day period for relevant queries filed by applicants.

[smyle]

Sponsorer

Good and right action by the SIC

Kudos to all concerned!

This callous attitude is rampant in every office/organisation. The person in possession of the information considers the RTI query unworthy of reply. This arrogance of attitude should go.

Now, the punished official may try to persuade his office to pay the fine from the public exchequer or if paid from his own pocket he may try to makeup the loss by some other corrupt means. If they get away by using this technique then the arrogance attitude may not change. This should also be stopped through further RTI query regarding payment of fine.