Telangana Today: Karimnagar: Friday,
February 03, 2017.
Public
Information Officers (PIO) are seemed to least bothered about Right to
Information (RTI) Act. Besides creating hurdles to furnish information under
RTI Act, PIOs are also not paying penalty imposed on them as punishment for
delaying information.
Only 27 per
cent of the penalty was recovered while 73 per cent amount remain unpaid. It
was revealed in information sought under RTI Act by one N Srinivas, president
of Lok Satta, udhyama samasta. Information Commission’s negligence is also one
of the reasons for non-recovery of penalty.
According to
the report given by the Public Information Officer, AP Information Commission,
of Rs 89.44 lakh fine imposed on PIOs in last ten years, only Rs 24.52 lakh
have been recovered and Rs 64.95 lakh was still pending.
Under section
20 of RTI Act, Information Commission has power to impose fine up to Rs 25,000
on PIOs if anybody did not accept applications from people under RTI or delayed
the information or destroyed the information.
Remembering
an incident which took place in the district few years ago, Srinivas said
Commission had collected Rs 25,000 from PIO of Housing Department by serving
ultimatum to the head of the department. However, such kind of follow up had
not been done by the Commission. So that the pending penalty amount had been
piling up every year, he told Telangana Today.