Daily Pioneer: New Delhi: Thursday, September 28, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has come down heavily on the attitude of Public
Information Officers (PIOs) who keep passing the files to other departments
instead of responding to the queries under Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Taking
cognisanse of this attitude, Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad has
issued a show-cause notice to PIO of the Delhi Parks and Garden Society and PIO
of the office of Divisional Commissioner for causing deliberate obstruction to
the dissemination of information by mindlessly transferring the RTI Application
to irrelevant officials, without checking their own records.
“The Noticee
is hereby directed to explain as to why maximum penalty of ` 25,000 shall not
be imposed upon him for his complete dereliction of duty and violation of
provisions of the RTI Act by simply forwarding the RTI application to
irrelevant officials with a view to frustrate the very dissemination of
information,” the order said.
The case here
was filed by Anil Sood who wanted information on the number of water bodies in
Delhi. His query was based on a
affidavit filed by the Delhi Government in the Delhi High Court in a separate
case where it had mentioned there were 794 water bodies out of which 261 were
dry, 319 were wet and 189 did not exist. Sood filed RTI before PIO, Principal
Secretary, Divisional Commissioner, GNCTD, and seeking copy of report of
committee claiming existence of 580 water bodies; list of the dry and wet water
bodies those that do not exist. Sood also sought details of the exercise done
by a committee constituted by Delhi High Court to examine the ownership of
water bodies whether owned by Government, Panchayat that were encroached and
now cleared.
Sood alleged
that the CPIOs transferred his RTI application to the offices of myriad and
irrelevant public officials including the BDOs/SDMs and feeling aggrieved over
no response from the public authority he approached the Central Information
Commission. The complainant also submitted a list of places where his RTI was
transferred.
“The above
trail of transfers indicates a virtual collapse of the RTI regime and is a
travesty of justice…It is a typical case of a bureaucratic exercise where
everyone wants to co ordinate by acting as a post office transferring papers
without even attempting to address them. Interestingly, the information sought
by the appellant is available on the Delhi Government website in the form of a
complete chart showing the break-up of wet water bodies and dry water bodies in
each zone, apart from their traceable/untraceable/encroached etc status. The
PIO, DPGS instead of providing the said information, chose to simply transfer
his responsibility on irrelevant and unconnected public officials,” Azad wrote
in his order.
“In the above
backdrop, the Commission is gravely concerned over the state of the RTI regime
specially with respect to dissemination of information to the public on public
interest issues like preservation of water bodies in the National Capital...
Despite a well-designed machinery, with two Committees set up only to monitor
the task of protection and preservation of the water-bodies, there appears no action
in developing the capability for disseminating correct information portraying
the accurate picture to the citizens,” Azad added.
He further
said that despite directions from the High Court as well as National Green
Tribunal on this issue, it is distressing to note that a very pertinent query
entirely in the interest of society and environment at large, has been dealt
with extreme insensitivity and a cavalier approach by the concerned PIO/DPGS.
“The Commission is perturbed over the laid-back and careless approach of the
public officials demonstrated in this case. Lack of application of mind, poor
knowledge base and the reluctance to reach out on the part of officials, as
characterised in the instant case, bodes ill for the RTI regime,” Azad wrote in
his order.
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