Public information officer slapped fine for his ant-ic

DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, June 21, 2012.

A public information officer (PIO) from the food and civil supplies department found himself at the receiving end of the RTI Act.

State chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad fined him Rs10,000 and demanded a departmental inquiry for not keeping records that are meant to be archived for a period of around 30 years.

The matter pertained to Chandrashekhar Patange, an applicant from Parel. Patange had sought information on the ration card documents of a person whose name also appeared on his ration card.

As per rules, an individual’s name cannot figure on two ration cards. When Patange pointed this out to the authorities, they not only cancelled the other ration card but cancelled his too. He filed the application in May 2010.

“I did not even get to know about it till the time I saw a new ration card. Even if a name is to be removed, the head of the family has to be informed. Nothing of that sort happened,” said Patange.

In fact, Patange was informed twice that no changes were made on the card. However, when he sought details on the documents of the other card, the authorities stated that they were eaten up by ants.

Since the documents form the basis on which a ration card is issued, they are categorised as grade A documents, supposed to be archived for around 30 years. In this case, they had vanished within a year’s time. The commission found that all was not fine as it was either carelessness on the part of the PIO, or he was denying information.

“There was something wrong. That is the reason a departmental inquiry has been ordered,” said Gaikwad.