TIMES OF INDIA, 9th July 2009
SIC orders Disciplinary Action against Principal Secretary for RTI negligence
LUCKNOW: The State Information Commission (SIC) took a strict stand against the principal secretary of public enterprises department, Sunanda Prasad and ordered disciplinary action against her for not taking the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act seriously.
The order passed by information commissioner, Gyanendra Sharma, in one of the recent judgments stated that the official invited disciplinary action against her for interfering in the work of the public information officer (PIO) of her department, for not taking her role of first appeals authority seriously and for violating the provisions of the Act. This is for the first time that commission has ordered disciplinary action against an IAS officer of the rank of principal secretary.
The case pertains to an RTI query made by an applicant, Rajeshwar Prasad, to the PIO of the department on January 21, 2007, about the appointment and pay scale of one of the employees of the department, Neerja Krishna. After applicant approached the commission, the department was asked to submit the entire details (files) on the action taken by the department on the query of the applicant.
The findings are shocking, the Act is three-years old in the state but even most of the higher level officials are ignorant about its existence... moreover, senior officials want to fail the system by way of which the Act is to be implemented, is the observation made by the commissioner in the order.
SIC orders Disciplinary Action against Principal Secretary for RTI negligence
LUCKNOW: The State Information Commission (SIC) took a strict stand against the principal secretary of public enterprises department, Sunanda Prasad and ordered disciplinary action against her for not taking the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act seriously.
The order passed by information commissioner, Gyanendra Sharma, in one of the recent judgments stated that the official invited disciplinary action against her for interfering in the work of the public information officer (PIO) of her department, for not taking her role of first appeals authority seriously and for violating the provisions of the Act. This is for the first time that commission has ordered disciplinary action against an IAS officer of the rank of principal secretary.
The case pertains to an RTI query made by an applicant, Rajeshwar Prasad, to the PIO of the department on January 21, 2007, about the appointment and pay scale of one of the employees of the department, Neerja Krishna. After applicant approached the commission, the department was asked to submit the entire details (files) on the action taken by the department on the query of the applicant.
The findings are shocking, the Act is three-years old in the state but even most of the higher level officials are ignorant about its existence... moreover, senior officials want to fail the system by way of which the Act is to be implemented, is the observation made by the commissioner in the order.
Congrats to the SIC of UP for such a bold decision. The Babus must learn a lesson of not interfering in the work and role of the Public Information Officers.
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