Times
of India: Chandigarh: 02 July 2014.
In a major relief to Haryana farmers, who want to
seek information regarding their pending payment from the cooperative sugar
mills, the state information commission on Tuesday held that the mills were
liable to furnish information under the RTI Act.
A three-member bench of the state commission,
comprising chief information commissioner Naresh Gulati and commissioners
Hemant Atri and Sajjan Singh, asked the officials of sugar mills situated in
Jind, Panipat and Rohtak to designate state public information officers without
any delay. The Punjab and Haryana high court had forwarded the matter to the
commission to take a call on the matter.
Four residents of different villages and towns had
alleged that these sugar mills were not providing information to them under
RTI. According to a villager of Jind district, Amit Kumar, his RTI application
was returned by the Jind sugar mill that told him that in the wake of law laid
down by the apex court, the cooperative societies don't fall under the ambit of
the Act.
Another applicant Mahabir Singh claimed that
Panipat sugar mill denied the information to him despite the fact that the
sugar mills of Karnal, Meham, Sonipat and Gohana were furnishing details to the
information seekers.
The commission bench noted that although the mills
don't receive any direct financial support in the form of grants, but they do
receive indirect support in the form of share capital to the extent of over 90%
of the total share capital from the government to conduct its business.
Withdrawal of financial assistance by the government would put the cooperative
sugar mills in a situation where they would struggle to exist, the bench
stated.
According to the commission order, the sugar mills
of Rohtak, Panipat and Jind have received loans ranging from Rs 45 crore to Rs
128 crore from the government, but there were no evidence which suggested that
the loans have been returned.
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