Babu pays 25,000 for denying information

The Times of India: Mumbai: Sunday, July 01, 2012.

In his first order after he took over as the chief information commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad has imposed a fine Rs 25000 on two senior officials of the food and civil supplies department after he found that there was malafide intention to supress information sought by two separate complainants under the right to information act. Ever since the RTI act was enacted seven years ago, it was the highest ever fine imposed by the information commissioner. Further, Gaikwad not only imposed a heavy fine on erring offilcials, but also asked the food and civil department to display basic information on its website.

A Bhandup resident had approached the local office of the food and civil supplies department to seek specific information as to how a ration card was allotted to his neighbour and she had also asked for documents from the competent authority. Even after two years, when rationing officer R N Hakke did not provide the information on the ground that the records were destroyed during the monsoon. When Gaikwad found that there was an attempt to supress information, he imposed a fine of Rs 25000 on the officer and directed him to provide the information within a week. In the event, he fails to provide the information, then Gaikwad has asked the food and civil supplies department to suspend him.

In another identical case, when it was observed that a rationing officer was deliberately avoiding to provide information to a Dadar resident, in that case too, Gaikwad imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the erring officer and asked the department to suspend him if he fails to provide the information.

In his well reasoned order, Gaikwad said as per the provisions of the right to information act, it's the responsibility of the department to provide entire information about the department on its website too, so that for securing basic information, there was no need to invoke the provisions of the RTI act. The chief information commissioner has directed the controller of rationing to provide all the information on the website of the department,'' a senior official said.