Hindustan
Times: Chandigarh: Friday, 31 July 2015.
Close on the
heels of the confrontation within over the allegation of favouring the Punjab
officers, Punjab State Information Commission on Wednesday disposed of a
petition that had only sought to look at the record about the collection of
education cess on liquor.
Punjab
information commissioner Nidhadak Singh Brar's disposing of the petition has
relieved the excise and taxation department of its obligation of allowing the
petitioner to inspect its record about the collection and utilisation of the
cess in Patiala district.
The denying
of information has come when state information commissioner Surinder Awasthi is
accusing chief information commissioner SS Channy of allocating of the
"most important departments to himself (Channy) and being generous in
granting prayers of bureaucrats and police officials". The HT had reported
the confrontation last Friday.
Right to
Information (RTI) activist Shivraj Singh of Patiala had petitioned for
direction to the excise and taxation department to let him see the record under
Section 2 (j) of the RTI Act, 2005, after the department had declined the
request this January.
The section
states: "The right to information accessible under this Act which is held
by or is under the control of any public authority and includes the right to:-
(i) inspection of work, documents, records; (ii) taking notes, extracts or
certified copies of documents or records; (iii) taking certified samples of
material; (iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes,
video cassettes or in any other electronic mode, or through printouts where
such information is stored in a computer or in any other device."
THE DENIAL
In the
communiqué declining the request, the excise and taxation department had cited
the financial figures in the name of public-money collection under the
"additional license fee" head in the financial years from 201011 to
2013-14.
It washed its
hands off the duty to provide the information regarding the fund-utilisation
certificates, replying to the petitioner that the details concerned the headquarters
based in Patiala. The communiqué had come from the headquarters only.
On Wednesday,
Brar acknowledged the department's standing against the inspection, pronouncing
that it wasn't required now after the department's reply to the petitioner. The
petitioner, who had earlier exposed the multi-crore-rupee herbs scam, had
sought the data only because the department had failed to make it public
voluntarily, though required to under Section 4 of the RTI Act. HT found no
mandatory details of the educationcess collection on the department website.
WILL ACT
ONLY ON COMPLAINT: CIC
When
confronted, Punjab chief information commissioner SS Channy said the commission
would surely take a call on the department's not updating its website "if
someone comes up with any complaint". He, however, stated that state chief
secretary Sarvesh Kaushal had also instructed all the departments to update
their websites.
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