The Hindu: Coimbatore: Monday,
August 22, 2016.
Tamil Nadu
Information Commission has asked two Coimbatore officers why they should not be
fined for delaying a piece of information on land registration that farmers’
association leader P. Kandasamy had sought.
RTI query
In its
hearing on August 11, the Commission had asked the then Public Information
Officer of the Madukkarai Taluk N. Chandran (deputy thasildar, head quarters,
Madukkarai) why it should not impose a fine of Rs. 25,000 on him for his reply
to Mr. Kandasamy’s January 19, 2015 RTI query, that he had forwarded the query
to the Coimbatore South Taluk office and he would respond after hearing from
the office.
Third
party
Mr. Chandran
should have responded to the query in time saying that he had contacted the
land owners concerned, as the information sought was about their land, and
based on the land owners’ reply informed the petitioner if he would or would
not furnish the information sought pertained to a third party.
The
Commission had also asked the current public information officer in the taluk,
S. Arulmurugan, why it should not fine him Rs. 5,000 as he had caused
consternation in financial loss to the petitioner by not saying clearly if the
Taluk office would provide information or not.
The Commission
said that both the officers should furnish their explanations before 2.30 p.m.
on September 20, 2016 in writing in person.
It also said
that the petitioner cannot access the information he had sought in his query
because they pertained to a third party and there was no provision in the RTI
Act to furnish such information.
The
petitioner Mr. Kandasamy had sought ownership details pertaining to seven
survey numbers of lands in Pichanur village in Madukkarai Taluk.
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