Finally, a government official had to pay for blocking information to a citizen sought under the RTI Act.
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The official, KD Bansor, also created history of sorts, as she became the first Central government official to lose Rs 12,500 from her salary for violations under the RTI Act. The RTI Act even made the government to work on a fast track. In just two months, fine was deducted from salary of the official held guilty of denying information and deposited with the Central Information Commission.
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The Central Information Commission (CIC) in September had invoked the penalty clause against two National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Schedulde Tribes, Kansor, an under secretary and Tikam Singh, a section officer. They were fined Rs 25,000, maximum amount under RTI Act and was to be equally shared.
The SC/ST Commission last week sent a cheque of Rs 12,500 deducted from the salary of Kansor, also acting as Additional Public Information Officer (APIO). But, the fine could not deducted from salary of Singh as he was, in the meantime, transferred to the ministry of Social Welfare and Justice.
The SC/ST commission has, however, informed that they had asked the ministry to deduct fine from Singh’s salary and send a cheque to CIC as per the order given by Information Commissioner OP Kejriwal.
The CIC had found both guilty of delay in handling the matter and causing harassment to the applicant Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad. Kumar had sought information on January 1, 2006, on action taken by SC/ST commission on his representation against the ministry of Steel. Kumar wanted to know the number of people from reserved categorised promoted under reservation scheme in different PSUs under the ministry.
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However, SC/ST commission took over four months to inform Kumar that the statistics sought by him was not available with them. Kumar contended that under the Constitution, the commission is required to maintain the figures and inquiry should be ordered for failure to fulfil the Constitutional obligations. Even after the CIC’s order, the commission failed to provide the relevant information resulting in penalty clause been invoked.
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However, SC/ST commission took over four months to inform Kumar that the statistics sought by him was not available with them. Kumar contended that under the Constitution, the commission is required to maintain the figures and inquiry should be ordered for failure to fulfil the Constitutional obligations. Even after the CIC’s order, the commission failed to provide the relevant information resulting in penalty clause been invoked.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
