EPFO official fined for not providing complete info under RTI

Ravinder Saini

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Tribune News Service

Rewari, November 25

The Central Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO)-cum-Assistant Commissioner (Pension) of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Kolkata, for not providing complete information sought under the RTI Act by Parveen Kohli, a retired general manager, Haryana Tourism Corporation.

As per the order, the penalty amount would be deducted from the salary of the CPIO, J Nayak, who would have to deposit the first instalment by January 15, 2019, and the last instalment before February 15, 2019. The commission also issued a show-cause notice to Shakeel Ahmed, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II, Kolkata, stating that why the maximum penalty should not be imposed upon him for not providing the complete information within the stipulated time.

“In May this year, I had sought information about the number and details of pensioners whose pensionable service for pension fixation/calculation has been treated as the total of past service (prior to Nov 16, 1995, and service beyond Nov 16, 1995) as per orders of various consumer forums, state consumer commission, national commission and courts of law, but CPIO Nayak did not provide complete information forcing me to approach the first and the second appellate authorities,” said Kohli.

The applicant said that the sought information pertained to 76-year-old Subhash Chander Banerjee from Kolkata who was seriously ill and a victim of delay and denial of payment of pension. Banerjee was entitled to receive monthly pension from the EPFO under the EPS scheme with effect from August 5, 2000, after his retirement at the age of 58, he added.

“After approaching the commission, I received a bundle of over 1,000 uncertified papers from the CPIO in reply to my RTI queries in October. The information was also incomplete. I produced the papers before the commission on October 31 during penalty hearing and demanded action against the CPIO. The commission then imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the CPIO after he failed to give any satisfactory reply to the show-cause notice,” said Kohli.

Since the CPIO submitted that Shakeel Ahmed was the actual authority who dealt with the pension file of Banerjee. Hence, the commission considered Ahmed as deemed CPIO and issued him a show-cause notice, he said.