Panchayat officer directed to pay fine for failing to provide information to RTI applicant

Times of India: Mangalore: Saturday, April 05, 2014.

The state information commission has directed Someshwar gram panchayat public information officer Keshav to pay Rs 1,000 to an RTI (Right to Information Act) applicant for failing to provide information.

P Shivananda, a resident of Puttur, had sought information on a particular bill and payment voucher under RTI from the gram panchayat in May 2013. The public information officer provided only partial information and said in his reply that "the details are not available in the office."

The state information commission observed that the public information officer should have mentioned the reason as to why the information sought by the applicant is not available in his office. "The commission considers this a very serious lapse on the part of the officer. Hence, the commission has directed the officer to provide the sought information within 15 days for free and take action against the concerned case worker or officer in case the file containing the required information is missing," state information commissioner T Rama Naik said in his order.

As per the rules, cataloguing and indexing of all files and documents should be done within 90 days in government offices, the commission said and directed the gram panchayat officials to follow the rules.