MP info commissioner issues show cause notice to top forest official for RTI violation

Madhya Pradesh State Information Commissioner has issued a show cause notice to a top official of the Forest Department for alleged dereliction of duty after he failed to provide information under RTI Act to an applicant on a large-scale plantation drive.

Virendra Singh Parihar had filed an RTI application in January 2017 in the office of the Satna forest conservator and sought information about the plantation drive between 2016-17 in which 50 lakh saplings were claimed to have been planted, a statement said.

He had also sought information and documents related to the purchase of fertilizer for the plants among other details.

The Forest Department, however, declined to provide the information to Parihar despite clear instructions from the state information commission. The department claimed that the information could not be provided as the applicant had asked many questions in one application and that his questions lacked clarity.

Despite repeated requests, the department declined to provide information to the applicant after which he approached the state information commission, filing a complaint against the officials responsible for not divulging the details, it said.

On Saturday, State Information Commissioner Rahul Singh issued a show caused notice to Rajiv Mishra, public information officer and the forest conservator of Satna, for his alleged failure to provide information to the RTI applicant and asked him why disciplinary action should not be taken against him along with a fine of Rs 25,000 for negligence.

The information commissioner in an order also directed Mishra to be present before the commission in Bhopal on August 16 during a hearing.

Singh also directed G K Mohanti, the chief forest conservator of the state forest department, to provide the information to Parihar within seven days.