CIC slaps penalty on DPCC officials for withholding info on

Two officials of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) have been slapped penalty by the Central Information Commission for withholding information about a concrete plant set up by Hindustan Construction Company here, by relying on meaningless technical interpretation of words.
Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu imposed penalty on the DPCC officials as they did not provide details of "environmental clearance" given to Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) for setting up the concrete plant at Nelson Mandela Road here.
During the hearing on the matter, activist Anil Sood said the information sought was about establishment of an RMC (ready-mix concrete) plant by Hindustan Construction Company Limited but the Public Information Officer said "no such record exists" which is a clear denial of information with "ulterior motive and mala fide intention".

Sood had demanded the copy of the location plan clearly mentioning the project site and the approach map with nearest landmark as submitted by Hindustan Construction Company Limited, along with application for environmental clearance for setting up the concrete mixing plant at Nelson Mandela Road for Munirka elevated corridor.
He said he had perused the application and the inspection report provided to him was inconsistent on various points.
The DPCC said, in fact, the consent for operation was given to Hindustan Construction Company and there was no environment clearance, because of this confusion they could not give information on time.

The Information Commissioner said the PIO had dealt with

the RTI application like an ordinary file and acted as "post office" where he simply forwarded his denial to the applicant, which is totally illegal.
"The RTI Act endows discretion upon PIO to coordinate with the other officers and see that the complete information is furnished to the applicant. The officers working in the DPCC are expected to know that the applicant is asking for the documents concerning environmental clearance.
"Although going by the meaning of the word giving consent for operation is also a kind of clearance, but does not appropriate on the part of the PIO to deny the information," Acharyulu said in his order.

The Information Commissioner pointed out that during the personal hearing, the former PIO, Chandra Prakash has tried to blame the appellant for not using specific technical expression which resulted in denial of information.
"The Commission holds that this is not proper statutory duty of Chandra Prakash. He is supposed to render specific reason to the applicant, a common man...
"The PIO cannot expect him to know the exact technical expression used in the office of the DPCC and officers of the DPCC including the PIO are expected to understand the purport of the RTI application," he said, while levying a penalty of Rs 1,000 on former PIO Chandra Prakash and Ajeeta Dayal Agarwal, the present PIO of DPCC.

Acharyulu said the Commission directs PIOs of the respondent authority not to deal with the RTI applications like this, but apply their minds and develop humanity/human concern to provide information than relying on meaningless technical interpretation of word used by them on the appellant.