MC info officer summoned for non-compliance of orders

Amritsar, January 18

The Punjab State Information Commission has summoned the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Municipal Corporation (MC) for not complying with its orders issued six years ago.

On May 7, 2014, the commission had imposed a penalty of Rs25,000 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 Rs25,000 from the salary of the executive engineer. Meanwhile, complainant Surinder 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 fresh application of Sultanwind, State Information Commissioner Pawan Kumar Singla issued a notice to the civic body for the compliance of orders and appearing during the hearing.

The commission is also annoyed with the PIO for not appearing during the hearing and not filing any reply in this regard. “This shows no regard to the notice of the commission as well as of the RTI Act,” said the State Information Commissioner. — TNS