Odisha Soochana Commission imposed penalty on PIO, FS&CW Dept.
Odisha Soochana Commission imposed penalty on Joint Secretary-cum-PIO
of FS & CW Department for false information and Addl.Secetary-cum-FAA of
the Department was directed to be more diligent with RTI matters.
In 2016, Govt. of Odisha invited Suggestions
from general public with reference to the
Draft Odisha State Food Commission Rules, 2016 notified in the Odisha Gazette Notification dated 25-1-2016.
We 5 persons, namely Shri Pradip Pradhan, Shri Bhawani Sankar Nanda,
Smt.Sanjukta Panigrahi, Shri Sachikanta Pradhan and Shri Pratap Sahu submitted
our suggestion by e-mail on 8-2-2016 followed by hard
copy sent by post. One of our suggestions was that the Rule
should have a provision to form Vigilance committee at each level, i.e. from
State to fair Price Shop with 2 members from public. The Rules were finalized
on 17-2-2016 with minor corrections based on suggestions of only few members of
public. Our suggestions were simply ignored and it did not find place in the
file noting at all. I sent another RTI
application on 4-3-2016 seeking details of suggestions received and also the
office note sheet in the matter. I
received the office note-sheet on 8-4-2016. I observed from the notes that 13 persons have
submitted their suggestions out of which 5 persons’ suggestions were noted in
the note-sheet. The remaining
suggestions were ignored. Even there is
no mention in the note-sheet about reasons for not taking a note of the remaining suggestions. Incidentally to all my queries of my RTI
Application dated 4-3-2016 the one and same reply was “The information sought
does not come u/s 2(f) of RTI Act, 2005” whereas the note-sheet supplied by
them contained all information I sought for.
On 1-8-2016 I requested the Principal Secretary of the Department as to
why they ignored our suggestions. As
usual there was no response. Then I sent
another RTI application on 7-9-2016 seeking information, (i) Date of receipt of
my letter dated 1-8-2016, (ii) Copy of file notings on my letter dtd 1-8-2016,(iii)
Copy of reply if any sent to me. The
reply of the PIO was interesting. He
replied to my query No.i, “The letter
dated 01-08-2016 had been received on 13-2-2016”; to query no.ii,
“copy of the letter dated 01-08-2016 supplied alongwith the file noting; and to
query no.iii “No reply has been sent in response to the said letter”. The reply
to my first query was absurd. Please see the dates I have underlined. Against 2nd query, the letter
stated to have been attached has not been attached. I made a First Appeal. The FAA informed that no letter dated
01-08-2016 has been received in the Department.
In another RTI application I sought the copies of diary register copies for
a period covering 10 days w.e.f 1-8-2021.
I received the same. I found my
letter dated 1-8-2021 was diarised in
the Department on 04-08-2016. I filed 2nd appeal and produced all
such documents. The Information
Commission after going through the documents and full hearing noticed the
careless approach to RTI Act and lie of PIO.
The Commission also observed that the FAA did not delve into the said
issue as well although I specifically pointed out in Form D . Finally my 2nd Appeal No.413/2017
was decided on 24-12-2020 with award of penalty of Rs.7000/- to the Joint
Secretary-cum-PIO of FS & CW Department and with a direction to the
Ex-Addl.Secretary-cum-FAA of FS & CW Department to be more diligent in
future while dealing with any matters under the RTI Act.
Please observe that the public
notification became meaningless since all suggestions were not noted and the
reasons for acceptance or non-acceptance have not been noted. The rules have been finally imposed on public
unilaterally. No action was taken on our
joint letter dated 8-2-2016 and my letter dated 1-8-2016 nor was there any response.
By Bhawani Nanda
7978150463
5.3.21