The New Indian Express: Vellor:
Tuesday, June 04, 2013.
The Tamil
Nadu Information Commission (TNIC) has directed the Vellore Corporation to pay
a sum of Rs 10,000 as compensation to a septuagenarian for providing wrong
information, which she sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
State
Information Commissioner Christopher Nelson pulled up the Corporation for
making the elderly woman run from pillar to post for the past three years by
providing wrong information. The Commission also demanded an explanation from
the Corporation Commissioner, P Janaki Raveendran, who is also the Public
Information Officer (PIO) of the civic body, for violating the RTI Act and not
appearing before the Commission for a hearing on the case on May 20 this year.
Nelson, in an
official communication, had asked the PIO to appear before the Commission on
June 21 to explain the delay in responding to the complaint and giving wrong
information on earlier occasions, in order to avoid action against her under
Section 20 (1) and 20 (2) RTI Act.
Venkatesan, a
resident of DBG Complex of Arni Road in Vellore, had challenged the Vellore
civic body’s (then a Municipality) decision to double the Property Tax of his
resident-cum-business complex from Rs 2,311 to Rs 4,622. On hearing the case,
the District Munsif Court had passed a permanent injunction on June 30 1999,
against the revised Property Tax.
Based on the
direction, Venkatesan’s wife Chandra paid the tax. However, the local body had
failed to issue the receipt for the tax she had paid till date. “We had been
sending demand draft towards property tax to the Municipality, which was later
upgraded as Corporation, since 2000. But it failed to issue receipt till date,”
said Chandra’s son Suresh.
Chandra had
filed petitions under the RTI Act on October 21, 2010, and November 8, 2011,
seeking information from the Corporation to find out the reasons for not
following the court’s order and not issuing receipts for 13 years. Responding
to the applications, the Corporation officials said that the local body had not
received the court order and asked the appellant to submit a copy of the court
order regarding the Property Tax fixed for their building.
“I was taken
to the Corporation office nine times. My son took me in a wheel chair to submit
the court direction copy regarding the tax issue. But the officials failed to
look into my plight and take appropriate action.
Though I have
been paying the tax regularly, no receipt had been issued to me to me till
date. The lethargic attitude of the officials is humiliating,” 72-year-old
Chandra said.
Frustrated
over the callous attitude of officials, Chandra filed an application before the
State Information Commission On August 29, 2012. In spite of the State body
having directed the Corporation to reply to Chandra’s petition within 15 days,
the PIO had failed to act.
The State
Information Commission, in turn, registered a case against Vellore
Corporation. On hearing the case on May
20 this year, Nelson found that the
Vellore Corporation officials had not only misguided the elderly woman and her
son but also the Information Commission.
“While going
through the files submitted by the Corporation officials, the Commissioner
found a copy of the court direction in the file submitted before it,” Suresh, who appeared on behalf of his mother,
said.
The
Commissioner also demanded an explanation for the PIO’s non-appearance during
the hearing and sending her subordinates in the rank of Deputy Commissioner for
the hearing, without any official document to represent her and violating the
RTI Act. He also indicated that if the PIO failed to give a valid explanation,
she would attract a penalty of `25,000. He directed the PIO to appear before
the Commission on Monday and provide an explanation.
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