The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has been slapped with a show-cause notice for not giving proper reply to an RTI query over shortage of water.
In its order dated December 17, the chief information commissioner (CIC) of Haryana, Naresh Gulati, asked the executive engineer of division-2 of Huda, Gurgaon, to furnish correct and complete information to the petitioner free of cost.
"The state public information officer-cum-executive engineer, Huda division no.2, Gurgaon shall furnish correct and complete free-of-cost information after re-verifying the facts," the order read.
The order came in response to a petition filed in April 2012 by 71-year-old JK Pathania, who had sought information about the infrastructural inadequacies for providing water supply in Sector-23A under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The petitioner had complained that water was not reaching the underground water tanks of houses in the area. This has forced residents to use motor pumps to suck water from the main supply pipeline to meet their daily requirement. The sector has around 500 houses.
"We have been receiving water for only four hours a day - two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. The incredibly low pressure cannot pump the water to the underground tank of our sector because of which we hardly get any water even during the fixed timings," explained Pathania, who has been living in sector-23A for the last 12 years.
The respondent from Huda - the state public information officer-cum-executive engineer of the division - had delayed the response to the RTI petition by three months. In the response dated August 2012, the representative of the respondent, Amit Rathi, said, "There is no shortage of water in sector23-23A. The water is being supplied twice a day i.e. from 5am to 8am and 6pm to 8pm."
{{/usCountry}}The respondent from Huda - the state public information officer-cum-executive engineer of the division - had delayed the response to the RTI petition by three months. In the response dated August 2012, the representative of the respondent, Amit Rathi, said, "There is no shortage of water in sector23-23A. The water is being supplied twice a day i.e. from 5am to 8am and 6pm to 8pm."
{{/usCountry}}According to the RTI act, the reply to an application should be furnished within 30 days.
Gulati, in his notice, said, "…a notice be issued under section 20(1) of the RTI act 2005 to the SPIO … asking him to show cause as to why penalty at Rs 250 per day, subject to a maximum of Rs 25, 000 for each day of delay in providing the information to the complainant be not imposed upon him."
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