SIC imposes penalty on civic officer

The SIC has imposed a penalty of Rs 250 per day on the additional municipal commissioner for not providing full information pertaining to construction of 60 houses on drains in Kankarbagh, reports HT Correspondent.

The State Information Commission (SIC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 250 per day on the additional municipal commissioner for not providing full information pertaining to construction of 60 houses on drains in Kankarbagh. It has directed municipal commissioner Vishwanath Singh to deduct the amount of fine from the salary of the defaulter with effect from January 12,which can go up to a maximum Rs 25,000.

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The SIC has posted the matter for further hearing on March 31.

The SIC passed the order on the plea of Keshav Kant Sharan, advocate, who had sought to know under the Right to Information Act (RTI) why the PMC had not taken any action against five house owners for illegal construction on drains.

The PMC had coughed up information about five defaulting constructions. Earlier, it denied information on the details of the encroaching houses.

This is the second time that the SIC has penalized the PMC for providing incomplete information.

It imposed a fine of Rs 250 on then PMC chief, Rana Awadhesh Singh, for his failure to provide information under the RTI Act about 60 houses constructed on drains in Kankarbagh. The PMC had then submitted a list of 18 houses built on drains. His predecessor KP Ramaiah had detected that 60 houses encroached the drains in Kankarbagh. On this basis, a senior citizen KK Shraran demanded the list of 60 houses built on drains under the RTI Act.