Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Tuesday, 24 November 2015.
Babus can be
booked for demanding a bribe from a citizen. But what if they are the ones
offering the bribe to an RTI applicant?
The Central
Information Commission is grappling with this peculiar situation after an RTI
applicant from west Delhi moved the information watchdog complaining that he
had been offered a bribe for not filing information requests. And the
anti-corruption branch too was refusing to tell him what action had been taken
on his complaint against the official.
“The
commission finds that, for the first time in the history of Independent India
such an incident came to light that a public servant offered a ‘bribe’ to
member of the public. This can be a symbol of empowerment of a citizen that
became possible because of the RTI Act,” information commissioner M Sridhar
Acharyulu ruled last week.
“This is
surely a significant incident, as it reversed the process of bribing, though
morally wrong,” he said, awarding a compensation of Rs 10,000 to Uttam Nagar
resident SK Saxena as an interim measure.
In addition,
Acharyulu who also struggled with the case for months also asked the government
official why he shouldn’t be made to pay Rs 25,000 for trying to block an RTI
application.
Saxena had
complained that an officer at the Najafgarh sub-division office had offered him
a Rs 10,000 bribe in January 2014 for not filing information requests on the
welcome gates erected in the Palam assembly constituency. He believed the gates
were constructed at an inflated cost and did not even conform to the engineer’s
designs.
He promptly
complained to the anti-corruption branch. When he later filed an RTI to inquire
the status of his complaint, the ACB refused to share any information
contending it would impede their probe.
The
information commissioner has also directed the ACB to report the status of the
case, a tentative deadline for completing the probe and the name of officials
responsible for the delay.
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