Departments don’t send action taken reports for months: RTI activist

The Tribune: Chandigarh: Wednesday, January 24, 2018.

The Haryana Lokayukta has been sending its annual reports and recommendations to the state government since it was constituted in January 16, 2006, but it has no information whether the government took any action on these reports and recommendations so far.

Information obtained under the RTI Act has also revealed that the Lokayukta suffers from shortage of staff, as against 70 sanctioned posts, there are only 22 regular employees, 23 posts are filled with contractual workers and 25 others are lying vacant.

Panipat-based RTI activist PP Kapoor, who obtained information on several points, alleged that the state government was deliberately trying to weaken the institution to render it as a “toothless tiger”.

The information also revealed that action taken reports sought by the Lokayukta from various departments for disposing of complaints were not responded for a long time, sometimes for more than a year.

Kapoor sought action taken reports on complaints lodged by him against some Panipat policemen on August 17 last, against officials of the Samalkha Municipal Committee on August 11 last and against alleged encroachment on HUDA land by a BJP MLA’s family on July 4, 2016.

In all these cases, the state public information officer (SPIO) of the Lokayukta replied that reports from the DGP, Director, Urban Local Bodies Department, and the HUDA Administrator, respectively were still awaited.

In reply to another query, Kapoor was informed that the annual budget of the Lokayukta for 2016-17 was Rs 2.21 crore.

The Lokayukta office has four posts of personal assistant, but three of these are lying vacant. Of the four sanctioned posts of assistant, two are filled by contractual appointment, while the other two are lying vacant.

There are two sanctioned posts of stenographer, but both of these are lying vacant. Of four posts of drivers, two are vacant and seven out of 10 posts of constable in the investigation wing of the Lokayukta are vacant. “It is ironical that the office of the Lokayukta where complaints of scams worth thousands of crores are made has a meager budget and lacks proper infrastructure. The government should provide proper staff and empower the institution to punish departments which take months to send reports to the Lokayukta,” he said.