The Tribune: Rewari: Monday, November 26, 2018.
The Central Information Commission has
imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the Central Public Information Officer
(CPIO)-cum-Assistant Commissioner (Pension) of the Employee Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO), Kolkata, for not providing complete information sought under
the RTI Act by Parveen Kohli, a retired general manager, Haryana Tourism
Corporation.
As per the order, the penalty amount
would be deducted from the salary of the CPIO, J Nayak, who would have to
deposit the first instalment by January 15, 2019, and the last instalment
before February 15, 2019. The commission also issued a show-cause notice to
Shakeel Ahmed, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II, Kolkata, stating that
why the maximum penalty should not be imposed upon him for not providing the
complete information within the stipulated time.
“In May this year, I had sought
information about the number and details of pensioners whose pensionable
service for pension fixation/calculation has been treated as the total of past
service (prior to Nov 16, 1995, and service beyond Nov 16, 1995) as per orders
of various consumer forums, state consumer commission, national commission and
courts of law, but CPIO Nayak did not provide complete information forcing me
to approach the first and the second appellate authorities,” said Kohli.
The applicant said that the sought
information pertained to 76-year-old Subhash Chander Banerjee from Kolkata who
was seriously ill and a victim of delay and denial of payment of pension.
Banerjee was entitled to receive monthly pension from the EPFO under the EPS
scheme with effect from August 5, 2000, after his retirement at the age of 58,
he added.
“After approaching the commission, I
received a bundle of over 1,000 uncertified papers from the CPIO in reply to my
RTI queries in October. The information was also incomplete. I produced the
papers before the commission on October 31 during penalty hearing and demanded
action against the CPIO. The commission then imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on
the CPIO after he failed to give any satisfactory reply to the show-cause
notice,” said Kohli.
Since the CPIO submitted that Shakeel
Ahmed was the actual authority who dealt with the pension file of Banerjee.
Hence, the commission considered Ahmed as deemed CPIO and issued him a
show-cause notice, he said.
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