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| Despite so much hype & hoopla, SIC comes out as yet another 'toothless' tiger in State | | Corrupt ready to pay Rs 25,000 as penalty, get absolved of all charges | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Jan 9: State Information Commission (SIC) constituted to ensure that provisions of Right to Information (RTI) Act are applied in principle in Jammu and Kashmir seems to be a 'toothless' tiger like the other commissions functioning in the state at the end of the day.
The Commission can impose penalty only up to a prescribed limit whatever grave the situation is. In other words we can say that the Public Information Officer (PIO) of a department can easily shield himself/herself or his/her superior in a case of corruption as he/she fully knows that nobody can touch him/her once the penalized amount is paid.
Section 17 of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act makes it clear that State Information Commission cannot impose penalty on any PIO beyond Rs. 25,000. This means that a PIO can pay Rs. 25,000 and get absolved of all the charges leveled against him/her by the person who has sought information on any issue regarding working of that particular department.
On November 28, 2013, SIC imposed Rs. 25,000 as penalty on Abdul Rashid, ex Executive Officer, Municipal Committee, Bandipora after Rashid as PIO of Municipal Committee, Bandipora denied information to one Mehraj-ud-din. The information was denied to the information seeker for 32 months (960 days).
In his RTI application moved on March 5, 2011, Mehraj had sought a list of persons appointed till March 31, 2006 at Municipal Committee, Bandipora. He had also sought information about persons employed from 1-4-2006 to 28-2-2011 at this Municipal Committee. Mehraj had also demanded for information regarding to approval/sanction of such appointments along with the information related to the works carried at Municipal Committee, Bandipora during the past two financial years.
State Information Commissioner, G R Sufi at the time of the disposal of case said that Commission under Section 17 of the State RTI Act holds Abdul Rashid, ex-Executive Officer-cum-PIO, Municipal Committee Bandipora to be in default and imposes penalty on him which is calculated at the rate of Rs. 250 for 960 days. Once calculated it leads to Rs. 2, 40,000 but that was not to be.
Quoting Section 17 of State RTI Act, Sufi writes "where the State Information Commission at the time of deciding any complaint, appeal or reference is of the opinion that the Public Information Officer has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application for information or has not furnished information within the time specified under the sub-section (1) of Section 7 or malafidely denied the request for information or knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or destroyed information which was the subject of the request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information, it shall impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees each day till application is received or information is furnished, so however, the total amount of such penalty shall not exceed twenty five thousand rupees."
The corrupt or dishonest officials can easily take refuge under this section of State RTI Act and after indulging in any corrupt activity they can easily either withhold the information or provide incorrect information as and when anybody wants to know about the 'corrupt' practices of these people. |
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