E-Paper
Haryana govt issues fresh directions to recover penalties under RTI Act
Faced with the challenge to recover penalties imposed on officials for not providing information sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the Haryana government has decided to take more steps to ensure that recovery is made from salaries of erring public information officers (PIOs)
Faced with the challenge to recover penalties imposed on officials for not providing information sought under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the Haryana government has decided to take more steps to ensure that recovery is made from salaries of erring public information officers (PIOs).
As per information provided by the government to activist PP Kapoor under the RTI Act, penalties worth ₹2.76 crore are still pending on 1,726 PIOs of 40 different departments.
Maximum penalties of ₹93.90 lakh are pending on PIOs of panchayat department, followed by ₹61.35 lakh on PIOs of urban local bodies department, ₹31.62 lakh on school education department, ₹21.15 on HSVP, ₹13.72 lakh on revenue department, and ₹13.57 lakh on urban estate.
Since the inception of the RTI Act in 2006, penalties of total ₹4.79 crore have been imposed in 3,589 cases. In the past 15 years, penalties of ₹2.02 crore of 42% fines have been recovered whereas 58% are yet to be recovered.
According to Kapoor, delay and non-recovery from the defaulting PIOs has raised doubts about the efficacy of the Act in Haryana.
Following a complaint filed with the Haryana lokayukta for slow recovery of penalties and non-compliance with the norms set for recovery of penalties from the PIOs, the Haryana government had set up a monitoring committee headed by the chief secretary, in January this year, to monitor recovery of penalties imposed on errant PIOs.
Kapoor said the government, in a reply of another RTI, has told that more steps are being taken in this direction. The government has decided to fix the responsibility of drawing and disbursing officer to deduct the penalty amount from salaries of defaulters and to take action against him in case he fails to do so.
The under secretary to the Haryana administrative reforms department replied to Kapoor, claiming that a meeting of the monitoring committee was held last month and fresh directions were issued including penalty recovery of each department be updated, and list of officers against whom penalty is due be circulated to the secretary or HoD concerned for recovery.
As per the RTI Act, PIOs are penalised with a maximum of ₹25,000 for intentionally not sharing information.
