The State Information Commission has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take disciplinary action against a senior IAS officer for not providing information under the Right to Information Act.
Information Commissioner Gyanendra Sharma asked the state chief secretary to take the action against principal secretary in public enterprises department, Sunanda Prasad so that other officers should take a lesson from it.
The order was passed on an application moved by a person named Rajeswar Prasad, who in January, 2007, sought information about appointment and payscale of an employee working in the department.
When PIO in the department sought permission of the principal secretary for providing information, she questioned authenticity of the query made by the applicant.
"Can a person neither related to the department nor the government seek personal information about the working officer of the department," she pointed out.
The SIC took a serious exception of the noting made by the principal secretary stating that it was highly shocking that senior officials were not aware of the provisions of the RTI Act.
This is for the first time that the SIC has ordered disciplinary action against a principal secretary rank official in the state.