BENGALURU: Sending a strong message against officials who have made it a habit to ignore the applications under Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Karnataka Information Commission has cracked the whip on an official of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for repeatedly failing to provide information under the RTI to applicants.
It has slapped a total penalty of ₹1 lakh on Deputy Secretary-1 Umesh in four different cases and directed the authorities concerned to recover the penalty from the official’s salary.
As per the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act, all the public authorities are required to publish details related to handling of their responsibilities on websites. Even the Supreme Court has issued an order making it mandatory for the public authorities to publish such details on their websites in the interest of effective implementation of the RTI Act.
The commission has chosen to levy a penalty on the erring officials taking serious view that failure to provide information under RTI on such a mandatory process would go against the spirit of the legislation.
Four different applicants had sought information under the RTI from BDA Deputy Secretary-1 Umesh related to handling of responsibilities under Section 4 of the RTI Act. As the officials concerned had ignored their applications, the applicants- Takshak, Tanvita Gaur, Ashwija P., and Balachandra Rao had filed an appeal before the commission.
The commission, which looked into the matter, had issued a show-cause notice to the official in this regard. But even then the official had failed to respond properly and also not provided information to the applicants. Taking exception to the official’s attitude, the commission slapped a penalty of ₹25,000 in each of the four cases and asked his higher-ups to deduct it from his salary.
In addition to this, the commission has also served a notice asking him to show cause as to why it should not recommend to the government to initiate disciplinary action against him.
State Information Commissioner Badruddin K. issued separate orders against the erring officials on February 11 and 18.
