Penalty of Rs 10,000 imposed on BDO for denying information

Daily Excelsior: Jammu: Friday, July 27, 2018.

The State Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 upon Bahar Ahmad Wani, the then BDO Gool and now BDO Gundi Dharam, Ramban, for denying information under Right to Information Act.

The penalty amount shall be deducted from his monthly salary.  DDO (District Panchayat Officer, Ramban) has been directed to deduct an amount of Rs 10,000/- from the salary of Bahar Ahmad Wani, immediately in two equal installments and deposit the same in the relevant Government Account.

The penalty proceedings were initiated owing to the 2nd appeal filed by the appellant  Ahmad Din Lohar of  Goo1, Ramban,  against Public Information Officer, BDO, Goo1 contending therein that the PIO has not furnished the information to him within the period specified in section 7(1) of the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 in response to his RTI request dated 06-03-2017.

In the said RTI request, the appellant had sought information with regard to population, with name of the family members, of Panchayat constituencies Gool-B and Gool-Parthimulla. On failure of the PIO to provide information, the appellant had filed 1st

appeal before Director Rural Development Department on 10-07-2017. The said appeal was transferred by Jt Director RDD Jammu to Assistance Commissioner Development, Ramban (First Appellate Authority) with a direction to hear the appeal and instruct the PIO/BDO, Gool to furnish the information to the appellant.

When the PIO failed to provide the desired information to the appellant even after the directions from Directorate of Rural Development, Jammu, the appellant filed 2nd appeal before the State Information Commission on 25-10-2017. The said appeal was heard by the SIC on different dates of hearing but the PIO/ BDO, Gool did not attend any hearing inspite of notices issued by the Commission to him for personal attendance.

The Commission was informed by the Directorate of RDD that the then PIO/ BDO. Bahar Ahmad Wani has been transferred from Gool and is now posted as BDO, Gundi Dharam, Ramban on 11-12-2017. He was replaced by Tariq Suharwardi, who too was transferred in March, 2018 and replaced by Rajinder Singh. Finally the appeal was disposed of by the SIC on 15-03-2018.

The SIC also directed the present PIO/BDO, Gool,  Rajinder Singh to provide the information as sought by the appellant within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of this order.