Indian Express: Balangir: Sunday,
August 14, 2016.
Records
relating to persons who have managed to get fake caste and residential
certificates from Balangir tehsil office have gone missing or eaten by
termites.
A recent RTI
response to rights activist Hemant Panda of the town has revealed that Balangir
tehsil has no records available in this case.
“Tehsil
authorities have written to me that either the records have been lost or
destroyed by termites,” Panda said and added that the missing files are not
only a serious lapse on the part of tehsil authorities, but will also hamper
probe into the irregularities committed during issue of certificates to
ineligible persons for different purposes.
Panda had
sought records of issuance of caste and residential certificates to one Amaresh
Padhan who managed to take admission into B.Ed training. But the Public
Information Officer (PIO) of the tehsil office declined citing no records
available.
Later, acting
on a direction of the State Information Commission, the office informed that
either the records have been lost or destroyed by termites.
Meanwhile,
hearing the second appeal under Right to Information Act, 2005, the State
Information Commission has asked the Tehsildar to initiate action against the
erring officials for their negligence in maintaining government records.
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