Officials face Rs 2.5 lakh fine for not giving info under RTI

Madhya Pradesh Information Commissioner Vijay Manohar Tiwari has served notices to two civic officials, asking them why they should not pay a fine of Rs2.5 lakh each for not sharing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Vinod Chaturvedi and Narendra Kumar Pandey, officials of Chandia Nagar Palika (civic body) in Umaria district, have been asked to reply by the last week of August.

The notice is related to ten RTI applications filed by activist Anupam Mishra in March 2016, seeking information on various issues.

Pandey, Public Information Officer of the civic body, did not give information in the stipulated 30 days or took any other decision on the applications, Tiwari's order said.

Pandey's successor Chaturvedi too dilly-dallied and did not provide information despite directions of the State Information Commission (SIC), it added.

This is possibly for the first time that the SIC has cracked the whip against lax response to RTI queries in Madhya Pradesh.

Implementation of the RTI Act is too poor in civic bodies across the state, Tiwari told PTI.