Times of
India: Meerut:
Thursday, June 23, 2016.
Taking note
of the delay in providing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act,
the Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission (UPSIC) has imposed a fine of Rs
25,000 each on eight information officials, including the additional district
magistrate and sub-divisional magistrate of Sardhana.
The fine will
be recovered from their respective salaries in three instalments. The
commission has also sought a clarification from the officials on the matter.
An order in
this regard was issued by SIC Rajkeshwar Singh. The move follows after
information was sought by city-based RTI activists Manoj Kumar, Ombeer Singh,
Naresh Agrawal and three others.
Seven out of
the eight officials, including the ADM and SDM, were posted in Meerut in 2012
and are currently deputed at other places.
Besides the
ADM and SDM, the SIC has levied fines on the then basic shiksha adhikari,
Sanjeev Nayan Mishra; the then additional municipal commissioner Rajesh Kumar;
the then regional secretary of madhyamik shiksha parishad Manoj Kumar; the then
chief engineer of MDA SP Singh and former executive superintendent engineer of
Ganga canal. The eight official to be fined includes Meerut Development
Authority official Shabi Haider, who is currently working in the city.
The SIC also
instructed the administration to take departmental action against those
officers who did not provide information on time.
Giving
details, RTI activist Naresh Agrawal, said, "Irrespective of their
department, it's a regular practice of information officers to make a mockery
of the RTI Act. I've made over 100 queries but nobody has replied to a query
within a month, the usual time limit mentioned in the act. The SIC office is in
Lucknow and whenever information officials are pulled up for dereliction of
duty, they claim innocence but things turn back to square one soon after."