MCG fined for failing to give details under the RTI Act.

The Hindu: New Delhi: Monday, July 06, 2020.

The Haryana State Information Commission has imposed a fine of ₹10,000 on the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram for “detriment suffered by the appellant” due to non-supplying of information under the RTI Act.

The panel also issued show-cause notices to the State Public Information Officers and directed them to furnish information to the appellant within a fortnight of the order free-of-cost through registered post.

Waste management

RTI activist P.P. Kapoor, a resident of Panipat, had filed an application before the MCG in on November 18, 2019, seeking an 18-point detail regarding M/s Eco Green Energies Pvt. Ltd., a firm handling solid waste management in the city. But the SPIOs-cum-senior sanitary inspectors of the four zones failed to do so in the stipulated time. and Mr. Kapoor filed the first appeal before the MCG Joint Commissioner-II. He then filed a second appeal before the State Information Commission on February 17 saying that he was provided incomplete and irrelevant information.

Hearing his appeal on July 2, State Information Commissioner Jai Singh Bishnoi remarked that the four senior sanitary inspectors did not provide information to the appellant despite the directions of the First Appellate Authority and directed the MCG to pay ₹10,000 “as compensation to the appellant in view of provisions of Section 19 (8) (b) of the RTI Act, 2005, preferably within a month, under intimation to the commission”.

Besides, directing the four SPIOs to furnish the information within 15 days, it also issued them show-cause notices seeking the reasons for the delay. The four have to submit their reply to the commission’s notice by September 1 and be personally present during the hearing on September 9, said the order.