Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 against an Under Secretary of the state government's revenue department for alleged mala fide and willful intention of not sharing the information sought by an RTI (Right to Information) applicant related to a corruption case.
While hearing an appeal filed by RTI applicant Achal Kumar Dubey, Information Commissioner Rahul Singh in a recent order slammed the officer concerned for adopting dilatory tactics to avoid responding to the desired information.
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Dubey had in 2017, filed an RTI application with the urban development and housing department, seeking a copy of charge sheet issued to the chief municipal officer (CMO) Vidisha, based on a complaint of alleged irregularities filed by him. He had also sought a copy of the response given by the accused officer on the departmental charge-sheet issued to him.
Aggrieved over the lack of response to both his application and first appeal from the department, Dubey moved the transparency watchdog.
During the hearing, the Under Secretary and Public Information Officer (PIO) pleaded not guilty saying that he had made all efforts to access the file, but he could not as the file was with another department.
The PIO, however, failed to provide any documentary proof in support of his claim.