DNA: Mumbai: Tuesday, July 31, 2018.
The state
information commission (SIC), which is supposed to ensure implementation of the
RTI Act, has allegedly not been following the same itself with regard to
seeking compliance on penalties and disciplinary action.
The inference
is based on observations of an audit report accessed under RTI by applicant
Vihar Durve. The audit report inspected commission records from January 2009 to
May 2016. As per the report, penalties were levied for just over three per cent
cases.
The report
states that the commission has not been following the RTI Act. Under the Act,
an official can be fined up to Rs 25,000 by the SIC for delaying or giving
misleading or incomplete or false information, among others. It also states
that disciplinary action can be taken against officials for flouting the RTI
Act.
The
commission had stated that it is the job of the respective public authority,
which ideally is the public information officer (PIO), to ensure that
commission orders are complied with. "The reply is not acceptable, as,
under Section 25 of the Act, monitoring is the prime duty of the commission for
effective implementation of the Act," stated the report.
As per the
report, the percentage of cases in which penalty was imposed compared to the
total number of cases that were disposed of, just about crossed three per cent.
The percentage of the penalty to the number of cases disposed of was highest in
2010 at 3.02 per cent. Of the 17,266 cases that were disposed of, penalties
were imposed only in 523, with the total penalty amounting to Rs 34.38 lakh.
The highest penalty amount was in the year 2013 at Rs 56.11 lakh.
"They
should give compliance report to auditors and also keep one with them else they
will be making a mockery of the RTI Act," said Vihar Durve, the applicant.
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