Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 12, 2010:
Central Information Commission has asked RIMS authority to pay a find of Rs 25,000 after cutting down from the salary of the then Public Information Officer (PIO) of the institute as penalty for delay in providing information sought under RTI by an individual.
The order of the CIC, New Delhi during hearing on PIO of RIMS failure to provide information conducted January 19 last in response to the complaint lodged by Y Gopal Krishna that PIO of RIMS failed to comply with the directive of the CIC passed on March 3, 2009. The Commission directed the CPIO to provide information sought by the applicant within one of the receipt of the order and also directed him to show cause as to why penalty of Rs 250 per day should not be imposed on him for not providing the information within mandatory period which the response is returnable within 20 days of receipt of the order.
The applicant, Y Gopal Krishna however, went to Commission again that the information sought by him from the RIMS authority under RTI was not provided as directed by the commission.
In the hearing to the complaint, GR Khtarpal, under secretary, M Chandamani, deputy director, RIMS and SK Bharti, consultant represented the public authority.
During the hearing, it was found that CPIO of RIMS had provided to the applicant on January 16, 2009 against received of the RTI application on June 25, 2008 which delay for more than 100 days.
The CPIO has not given any reasonable cause of delay in providing the information except assuring that all possible action will be taken up not to cause such delay in future.
During the hearing the representative of the applicant stated that the information has not been received till the day of hearing.
After hearing the arguments of both side, the Commission once again directed the then PIO of RIMS to provide the information and also imposed penalty of Rs 25,000 on the PIO to be recovered from his salary in five installment of Rs 5000. The order further stated that the penalty can be recovered by the appellate authority and the first installment should reach by first week of March, 2010 and the final installment by first week of July, 2010.