Not a single penalty against any PIO in 10 years

Times of India: Bhopal: Sunday, 31 May 2015.

State Information Commission of Madhya Pradesh has not penalized a single officer of general administration department (GAD), a key state department for dissemination of information, in a decade of its existence. Even though the commission receives hundreds of RTI queries on GAD, there has not been a single hearing to penalise even a low-ranked GAD officer even after being slapped with show-cause notices from the information commission, according to data available with TOI.

The only time GAD has been hauled up for its incompetence to enforce RTI in the state was when GAD principal secretary K Suresh was severely criticised by information commissioner Heera Lal Trivedi, following an order by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to conduct social audits on NGOs and panchayat bodies.

An RTI application filed by TOI correspondent with queries on funds spent by GAD for RTI awareness in the state on June 27, 2014, is yet to receive an answer. An appeal for early hearing was also filed on November 21, 2014, but it has been more than 6 months and no date has been fixed for hearing.

According to data with information commission, 30% applications, appeals and complaints received by the state panel are from Bhopal, 5% and above from Indore, Jabalpur, Katni, Balaghat, Katni and remaining 70% from rest of Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking to TOI, RTI activist Ajay Dubey said, "I filed an RTI application on GAD in 2008 on inquiry commission's report by Justice S K Pandey on the Datia tragedy in 2006. Seven years on, GAD has not only failed to give me the report but has also failed to comply with MP high court's order in 2013 which clearly states that secretary general, GAD, of MP will be personally responsible for comply with assurance. The high court also ordered that commission should be reconstituted before January 31, 2014, and the new CIO should comply with order within six weeks of taking charge."

"A show-cause notice was issued against PIO Rajesh Kaul of GAD by info commission in 2010, but till date no action has been taken against him. GAD is not under RTI ambit and even the info commission has failed to comply with high court's order because it's a puppet in the hands of the government, turning RTI into a toothless tool," said Dubey.