Make list of ‘missing files’, file FIRs, CIC tells Huda

Times of India: Gurgaon: Monday, April 23, 2018.

The Haryana chief information commissioner (CIC) has directed Hudato prepare a complete list of files on residential and commercial sectors missing from their office, then file FIRs for these and take action against officials responsible for their custody.

CIC Yash Pal Singal passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by Gurugram-based RTI activist Aseem Takyar.

Takyar had filed an RTI query before Huda in August 2017, seeking information on the files for residential and commercial sectors that are missing, files which were re-constructed as their replacement, and FIRs filed by the authority for the missing files. Unsatisfied by authority’s reply, Takyar filed an application before the first appellate authority in September 2017, and finally before the commission in December 2017.

The CIC observed that Huda’s reply indicates no effort has been made by the authority to prepare any list of missing files or re-constructed files, neither have FIRs been filed for the ones missing.

he order further observed that as per Section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act, 2005, a public authority has to maintain all its records. The CIC directed Huda to reconstruct the missing files and take action against official(s) responsible for their custody, including registering of FIRs for files that went missing or were destroyed, and complete all of this before June this year. “Non-maintenance of such information is itself a violation of the RTI Act,” said Takyar.

Missing files is one of Huda’s perennial problems, often making people wait for years to get their work done.

“Lower-level authority officials have adopted a practice of declaring files missing, after dumping or hiding them to stall work and harass residents,” said an official, adding files are declared missing if a resident fails to “fulfil the lower-level official’s demands”, ie, pay bribe, and that missing files resurface as soon as residents “fulfil the demand”.

It is a practice that has flourished for years, in the absence of regular scrutiny by higher-level officials, that in most cases, FIRs are refused although they are mandatory.

To check such corruption, Huda had introduced its online system in January, promising to complete 32 civil works listed under citizen charter, barring issuing completion certificates, in four working days.