State info commission imposes penalty on med official

Times of India: Jodhpur: Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

The state information commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 13,000 on the chief medical & health officer of Jodhpur for not providing information to an applicant despite notices to the officer by the commission. The penalty has to be paid to the applicant in a fortnight.

Interestingly, for failing to provide the information on the application, the commission, on appeals by the applicant, had sent two notices to him but on failure of the pursuance of these notices, the commission had imposed a penalty of Rs 2000 on the officer with the direction to provide the information in two weeks. But the officer remained unfazed and the applicant kept awaiting the information.

According to Shayma Sunder Saad, resident of Pahadganj of Jodhpur, he had sought information from CMHO under RTI Act pertaining to the 104 and 108 ambulance service through four separate applications from September 5, 2016 to January 16, 2017.

Being the public information officer, the CMHO Surendra Singh Choudhary was supposed to provide the information, which he did not.

When the information was not provided to Saad, he appealed in the state commission twice, which sent notices and also levied a minor penalty of Rs. 2000 on the information officer. But despite that, the applicant was not provided with the information.

He then again moved the commission finally on May 31 and taking the matter seriously summoned the officer with the information at the commission.

But he neither appeared nor provided information. He, however, sent a staff member as a representative from his office to the commission.

Finally, considering the CHMO accused of not providing the information, the commission imposed a penalty of Rs. 13000 on the officer, which will have to be paid in two weeks’ time.

On the other hand, Choudhary passed the buck on the company, the sought information pertained to. He said that the company is responsible for not providing the information.

But according to the RTI activists, information could not be sought directly from a private player as a contractor or service provider because they work under the directions and guidance of the government office.