Times
of India: Meerut: Tuesday, 22 December 2015.
Taking note
of the delay in providing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act,
the Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission (UPSIC) on Monday slapped a fine
of Rs 25,000 each on 13 government officials of various departments.
Interestingly,
out of the 13 defaulters, nine are from Muzaffarnagar, one from Shamli and the
remaining three from Amroha.
The nine
officers from Muzaffarnagar include sub-divisional magistrate (Jansath tehsil),
tehsildar (Jansath), chief medical superintendent - district hospital (men),
land acquisition officer, two district probation officers, executive engineer
(rural engineering department) and village panchayat officers from Mubarikpur
village and Ahrora village of Muzaffarnagar.
The
government treasury will realize the fine by deducting it from the salary of
the official in instalments. Senior officials will be held responsible if the
order is not followed.
Hafiz Usman,
Information Commissioner, UPSIC, told TOI, "All these 13 officials had
either not replied to RTI queries, or had replied but did not mention the
reason why information was not being provided to the RTI activist or any other
person who had an RTI query. The fine amount totaling Rs 3.25 lakh has been
slapped on the officials."
Asked the
reason for the high number of RTI defaulters in the district, Muzaffarnagar DM
Nikhil Chandra Shukla, said, "It is indeed a matter of concern. But the
reason why a majority of the defaulters are from Muzaffarnagar could be because
all district officials were busy with the panchayat elections for the past
three months. However, we will probe the issue."
He further
said, "Under Section 20 of the RTI Act, all erring officials were served
show-cause notices and were asked to provide information under the RTI within
30 days. But neither did they provide information nor did they appear in the
UPSIC. This is why Rs 25,000 has been slapped on each one of them," said
Usman.
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