Make penalties on officials public: CIC

The Central Information Commission has directed the Delhi Government to make public those cases where penalties were levied on officials, as promised by it in 2010, for not providing ration cards within the stipulated 45 days.

The Central Information Commission has directed the Delhi Government to make public those cases where penalties were levied on officials, as promised by it in 2010, for not providing ration cards within the stipulated 45 days.

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The case relates to an RTI application seeking to know details of service level agreement announced by the Delhi Government in 2010 where it was promised that officials will be penalised at Rs 10 per day in cases where ration cards were not prepared within 45 days.

During the hearing before the transparency panel, the Delhi Government officials conceded that no penalties have been levied even though there were cases where cards were not made within 45 days.

"The main component in this promise made by the Delhi Government was that citizens would get a ration card in 45 days failing which the responsible officer would be penalised Rs 10 per day. The appellant was seeking to know if the government had implemented this promise or had made a false promise," information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said.

Directing to publish on their websites in tabular format the cases where cards were not prepared within the time-frame and penalties levied on the officials concerned, Gandhi said if the government makes false promises this is a serious default and the citizens can not have any faith in it.

"This list must be displayed for the period starting June 2011 onwards and must be updated each month before 15th of the following month. PIOs of all zones will send the compliance report to the Commission before 15 July 2011," he directed.