₹2.27-crore penalties pending against 1,726 info officers in Hry

KARNAL: Poor recovery of penalties imposed on Haryana government officials for not providing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has raised a question mark over the implementation of the Act in the state.

Due to lack of action against the erring officials, penalties amounting to around ₹2.27 crore were pending against 1,726 information officers in various departments in the state.

Moreover, out of 77,342 appeal cases registered with the Haryana State Information Commission since the implementation of the RTI Act in 2006, 3471 cases were pending for the past several years. In a 607-page reply to an RTI application filed by Panipatbased activist PP Kapoor, the commission stated that from the implementation of the Act in 2006 to December 31, 2019, the penalties amounting Rs 3.50 crore were imposed on 2,974 erring officials, who failed to provide information under the Act.

Of this amount, Rs 1.23 crore was recovered while Rs 2.27 crore was still pending against 1,726 officials of different departments.

As per the information, some HCS officers were also among the

RTI penalty defaulters.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Kapoor said, “This information has exposed the reality of the BJP government in the state which makes tall claims of zero-tolerance on corruption. The pendency in recovery of penalties has increased to 64% during the BJP regime as against 46% under the Congress rule in the state”.

“Even the percentage of recovery of penalty during the BJP regime has declined drastically from 41.33% in 2014 to 14.4% in 2019,” he added. He slammed the government for protecting the defaulters and demanded action against them.

“This has exposed poor implementation of the RTI Act in Haryana. Due to lack of strict action from the government to recover penalties, officers do not take the act seriously and hesitate in providing the information”, he added. Another activist advocate Amit Rathi urged the the government to ensure that all erring officers deposit penalties at the earliest.

POOR RECOVERY RAISES A QUESTION MARK OVER IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACT IN THE STATE