Saturday, August 12, 2017

Forest dept to pay Rs 2000 to RTI activist

Times of India: Nagpur: Saturday, August 12, 2017.
The state information commissioner (SIC), Nagpur, Dilip Dharurkar, has directed state forest department to pay Rs2,000 to city activist for not supplying requisite information under the RTI Act on 100 crore plantation drive initiated in 2012 by the then Congress-NCP government.
Expressing concern over physical and mental harassment meted out to RTI activist Avinash Prabhune, the commission has confirmed that public information officer (PIO) has prima facie violated Section 7 (1) of RTI Act and is thus liable for penalty at Rs250 per day for the delay as per Section 20 (1) of RTI Act.
The commission has also issued show-cause notice to PIO before imposing penalty. The SIC observed that chief conservation of forest (CCF) for vigilance & employees welfare and CCF (budget, planning & development), who was appellate authority, has not conducted hearing on first appeal within stipulated time and violated RTI Act.
"Therefore, the SIC has also issued show-cause to CCF and appellate authority before directing disciplinary action against him. The commission has asked to supply entire information in 30 days now.
Prabhune had filed first RTI application on the issue on May 5, 2016, seeking details about 100 crore plantation scheme initiated by the then Congress-NCP government. But, despite winning RTI appeals complete information was never supplied to the activist.
Information on many issues like setting up of information centre (MIS) by spending lakhs in Thane to monitor plantations and accountability against officials were completely denied by the department.
Based on whatever information the department had supplied under RTI it was evident how 'Shatkoti' ambitious plantation project fizzled out and public money was wasted. Over 500 crore saplings were to be planted between 2012 and 2017.
The information revealed that every year 100 crore saplings were to be planted by all the agencies including the three forest department wings. However, only 25.39 crore saplings were planted in 4 years from 2012 to 2015, by spending a whopping Rs427.56 crore. This comes to 6.34 crore saplings per year.