Publication: The Times Of India Lucknow; Date: Jun 5, 2011; Section:
Times City; Page: 3
In over four years, UPSIC collects just 1% of RTI fine
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Lucknow: Action speaks louder than words but not for UP State
Information Commission (UPSIC) which believes in pronouncing
hard-hitting orders and acting little on them. The fact that UPSIC so
far has recovered only 1% of the total fine imposed on government
departments for not keeping up with the RTI Act lends strength to the
claim.
The cases where PIO either refuses to accept the application for
information or knowingly gives misleading, incorrect or incomplete
information or does not provide information within the given 30 days,
the commission slaps a fine of Rs 250 per day for the days till the
application is received and information is given. The maximum penalty
is Rs 25,000.
The UPSIC has slapped a total fine of Rs 53,63,500 since October
2006 (the time it started functioning) till February 2011 but the
recovery is as low as 1%. Rs 62,500 recovered as fine from the erring
government departments is a pittance compared to the total amount.
Penalising government departments is a last possible action taken by
the central and state information commissions to make the public
information officers (PIOs) act promptly on RTI applications. However,
leniency exhibited by the UPSIC for government departments does not
augur well for RTI implementation in the state where it is already
marred by official apathy.
An RTI applicant, Salim Baig, had asked the administrative reforms
department (ARD), the nodal department for implementation of RTI in
UP, about the amount of fine imposed on and recovered from the
government departments for acting sluggish on RTI front by the UPSIC.
The commission has penalised 30 departments in 231 pending cases till
February 2011. The fine, hence collected, goes to the state treasury.
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