Deduct Rs 25K from official’s pension for RTI lapses: Panel

Charnajit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 23

The Punjab State Information Commission has ordered Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Municipal Corporation (MC) to deduct the penalty amount from the salary of a retired executive engineer. The penalty was imposed for not responding to an applicant under Right to Information Act (RTI) six years ago.

The MC representative informed the State Information Commission that the penalty recovery case had been sent to the pension branch. The pension cell prepared a report and penalty amount would be deducted from the pension of the concerned officer. State Information Commissioner Pawan Kumar Singla ordered to deposit the deducted penalty amount in the government treasury.

On May 7, 2014, the Commission had imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the then executive engineer, Surinder Mahindroo, for not providing information related to an RTI query. The MC failed to implement the orders and did not deduct Rs 25,000 from the salary of the executive engineer during his service. Meanwhile, complainant Ravinder Sultanwind had claimed that the executive engineer retired from the service a few years ago and he did not receive the compliance report in the case.

During a hearing on the application of Sultanwind, State Information Commissioner Pawan Kumar Singla had ordered to deduct the penalty amount from the pension of Surinder Mahindroo.

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