Other States - Orissa   

SIC gets tough with erring employees

BHUBANESWAR: Jagadishwar Gopal, secretary of Brahmanichendia gram panchayat in Kalahandi district, gets a salary little over Rs. 2,000 per month, but he will now have to pay Rs. 25,000 as fine. Mr. Gopal’s fault was that he made inordinate delay in providing information sought by a villager under Right To Information (RTI) Act.

The gram panchayat secretary is not alone in the list of public servants on whom penalties have been imposed under the RTI Act. As many as 31 State government employees figure in the list.

State Information Commission (SIC) is getting tougher with erring officers. As a result, fear is slowly creeping into the bureaucracy while there has been visible urgency being marked in administration to clear RTI applications.

“Mr. Gopal can be a poor man, but everybody is equal before justice. We asked him to pay the fine in 25 instalments but we did not let him off. Our tough posture will surely give rich dividends in future,” outgoing State Information Commissioner Radhamohan says.

Till date, the SIC has imposed Rs. 2,45,000 as a fine by taking 31 government employees to task. Four of them had paid a fine of Rs. 36,250 while the rest had moved upper court. Those who paid the fine included engineers, head clerk and section officers.

A senior officer on condition of anonymity say the RTI Act made the life miserable for employees who had already been overburdened. “The commission is passing judgments following exact sections of RTI ignoring ground reality,” he says. Prof. Radhamohan, however, shot back: “Our experience shows only 30 to 40 applications reach a department per month. It is not a difficult task to dispose off those. If officials give this sort of explanations and we will become sympathized to them then the act will be nullified,” he says.

At present, municipality offices, home, health and education department receive highest number of RTI applications. To deal with the rush, section head of the departments had been declared as Public Information Officers, says Prof. Radhamohan. Activists see the imposition of penalty in different light. “The trend gives a clear indication that lower grade employees are being made scapegoats while top officials don’t face the stick. In long run, penalising lower-grade employees will not help to achieve basic objectives of RTI.

The departmental head should ensure work culture in his office,” says human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungo.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

XIMB students land jobs with top-notch companies
Fund crunch makes mid-day meal tasteless
SIC gets tough with erring employees
Lawyers’ stir continues
Sanction of adequate funds for railway project sought
Road blockade
Deepak Mishra passes away
Tributes paid to Mahatma
NALCO dividend
Three drowned in reservoir
No fun in functions in violence-hit areas

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu