RTI Act: Rs 2 cr penalty imposed on govt officials

The officials failed to provide information sought under the Act

The State Information Commission has so far imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on the government officials for failing to provide information sought under the Right to Information Act, said Commissioner Shekhar Sajjanar.

Speaking at a workshop on RTI Act organised by the State Information Commission in association with the district administration here on Friday, Sajjanar said most of the officers had to pay penalty due to their poor knowledge about RTI Act.

The government officials should not consider RTI applications filed by the citizens as a burden or punishment.

The RTI Act came into force because the government officials failed to discharge their duties properly. Under RTI, the government officials are duty bound to provide the information. The officials need not face any problem if they specifically tell the applicants whether the information sought by them was available with them or not within 30 days of receiving the application.

Replying to a query, Sajjanar said no limit was imposed on the number of applications to be filed by the citizen. There was an instance of one citizen filing 2,000 applications under RTI Act in one day in Bengaluru. In case any applicant was found to be filing the applications under RTI act with malafide intension the officials have bring it to the notice of the Information Commission.

The officials have to compulsorily read the request made by the applicant in the application and ensure that the request does not cross 150 words. The application should be either in English, Hindi or the local language.

The RTI has empowered only the citizens to get all the information and not for the organisations. Hence, if the application does not have name of the applicant or is written in the name of the organisation, such applications can be rejected, he added.