Ludhiana civic body officials penalized

Ludhiana: In an unprecedented action, irked over the lax attitude of the zonal commissioners cum public information officers (PIO) of the municipal corporation (MC) in dealing with the applications related to Right To information (RTI) Act, the State Information Commission (SIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on all of them despite the fact that they had submitted unconditional apologies to the commission.
According to information, Rohit Sabharwal, the president of an NGO, Anti-Corruption and Crime Investigation Cell had filed an application under the RTI Act for getting information on the action being taken by the civic body regarding illegal encroachments in city.
However, when he was not given the information, the applicant filed an application in the SIC. Hearing the case on December 3, 2009, information commissioner Surinder Singh issued showcause notices to all the four PIOs of A,B,C & D Zones of MC, directing them to submit affidavits explaining reasons as to why penalty be not imposed upon them for the delay in supply of information.
Meanwhile, filing their reply, VK Sharda, MS Jaggi, AS Sekhon and PS Ghuman zonal commissioner-cum-PIO, Zone A, B, C and D respectively said that the requisite information was supplied to the appellant on December 1, 2009, notably, after a period of five months. Keeping in view the circumstances and facts narrated in the affidavits and other documents submitted by the PIOs, the commissioner in his orders issued on December 29 said the PIOs had not made any sincere efforts to supply the information to the appellant within stipulated period, adding that rather a casual approach has been adopted by them towards disposal of RTI applications.
He said that no solid reason has been put forth by the PIOs for the delay in supply of information, rather an effort has been made to pass on their responsibility to the APIOs. Taking a serious view of the laxity shown and casual approach adopted by the PIOs in supply of information, the commissioner imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 each on all the four PIOs, to be deposited in the treasury under the relevant head, within a period of 20 days.