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`Punish officials for delaying information'

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: Battling the opaque system, a seeker of information under the Right to Information Act, 2005, in Bhilwara district in Rajasthan has approached the State Information Commissioner requesting to penalise the erring block development officer and gram sachiv for denial of information to him for the past 10 months.

Syed Hussain of Bagore gram panchayat in Bhilwara's Mandal tehsil has asked State

Information Commissioner, M.D. Korani not only to impose cash penalty on the functionaries responsible for denial of information, but also to take department level disciplinary action against them, including recording it in the annual confidential report.

Hearing on March 24

The hearing in the case, first of its kind in the State, is scheduled for March 24.

Mr. Hussain had first approached the secretary of Bagore gram panchayat on June 20, 2006 for the copy of the list of pattas (land registrations) issued by the panchayat in the area.

When the gram sachiv (secretary), who accepted the application, did not provide the information in the stipulated period of one month, he approached the Development Officer of Mandal with an appeal on July 26.

In June and July he made several visits to the gram panchayat office and spent hours in the premises waiting for the gram sachiv who played truant.

By now Mr.Hussain filed his second appeal with the BDO on September 5, without any result. Acting on a petition from him on October 27, the State Information Commission directed the functionaries in Bhilwara to provide the information sought by him within a month.

A month's wait did not bring any result. Mr.Hussain complained to the State Commission on January 12, 2007 prompting the latter to write to the Development Officer once again besides seeking an explanation for denial of the information. In the meanwhile Bagore gram sachiv Harishankar Chaturvedi was transferred and one Ramesh Chand Jhingar replaced him.

When another appeal from Mr.Hussain to the Commission on February 19, which prompted a strong directive from it to the officials concerned, too evoked no response, the Commissioner directed the Development Officer to appear in person before him in the capital by February 28 with all the relevant documents. This, according to Mr.Hussain, had a partial impact. He received a registered envelope on February 28. "The information provided was incomplete. Some of the details were irrelevant ," Mr.Hussain noted in his complaint.

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