Mohan Singh, a Munirka resident, filed an RTI application on June 2 on the upkeep of park walls in his locality. When he didn’t get a reply, he appealed to the Public Grievances Commission (PGC). So far no penalty has been imposed on any official.
Rajiv, who lives in Seemapuri, had submitted three applications on sanitation and maintenance of parks in the area. Though he has approached the PGC, no information has been released. The officials responsible have also not been penalised.
These are just two of several instances in which information has been denied and no action has been taken against the officials responsible.
Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan, the NGO that’s campaigning for implementation of the Right to Information Act, says ‘‘the fear of law will not be there unless officials responsible are penalised’’.
Section 9 (2) of RTI Act says when ‘‘a person responsible to supply information fails to furnish information asked for within the time specified or furnishes wrong information, he shall be liable after inquiry for imposition of penalty’’.
Maharashtra government enacted its right to information law a year ago and they have already punished 20 officials, says Kejriwal, adding ‘‘but in Delhi, the PGC has not imposed penalty in any case so far’’.
In fact, an executive order was issued in April this year by Shailaja Chandra, who was then the chief secretary. It said: ‘‘The PGC will be quantifying the amount of penalty to be imposed which will be recoverable from the competent authority.’’
Chandra, however, argues that ‘‘penalty can be imposed only after an inquiry and will have to be done by the disciplinary authority. I can only recommend. The authority to execute the orders are different for different grades of officials.’’
‘‘If the officials belong to a slightly senior level, the authority could be chief secretary, at higher levels it is the L-G and the seniormost officials can be dealt with by the home ministry,’’ she said.
‘‘I don’t want to recommend in any instance where it becomes another file in the Government. I have found three-four instances recently where there have been glaring delays by officials and have recommended action against them. I don’t want to take names but I am taking suo motu cognizance of these cases,’’ she said.