In what raises doubts about the efficacy of the Right To Information Act in Haryana, of the total ₹3.50 crore penalty imposed on officials for not sharing information, only 35% has been recovered since the setting up of the Haryana State Information Commission in 2006, an RTI reply has revealed.
In a reply to an application by RTI activist P.P. Kapoor, Haryana State Information Commission Under Secretary Yagya Dutt Chugh has revealed that 1,726 defaulters, including many belonging to the Haryana Civil Services cadre, had not paid penalty to the tune of ₹2.27 crore till December 31, 2019. The commission had imposed fine on 2,974 officials against the appeals made to it for not sharing information. Of the total fine imposed, only ₹1.23 has been recovered so far.
The officials are penalised with a maximum penalty of ₹25,000 for intentionally not sharing the information.
Collection under regimes
In terms of collection of penalty under the different political regimes, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government fared better with recovery of 56.06% of the penalty from 2006-2014, while only 29.01% of the total penalty amount was recovered during the five-year tenure of Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar from 2014-19.
As per the RTI reply, a total fine of ₹78,56,750 was imposed on 984 officials for defaulting on sharing of information during the Congress government regime till 2014, and ₹44,04,950 was recovered from 530 officials. Similarly, the SIC imposed ₹2,71,97,990 penalty on 1,990 officials during the BJP regime from 2015-19, but only 718 officials paid ₹78,90,866.
List of defaulters
Some of the senior officials among the defaulters are: Bijender Hooda (HCS), Shalini Chetan (then CTM, Hisar), Satinder Siwatch (SDM, Ambala), Bharat Bhushan Gogia (Executive Officer-II, Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran), Suresh Kumar Singal (District Revenue Officer, Sonipat) and Prashant Ishkan (Regional Transport Authority, Sirsa).
Mr. Kapoor, a resident of Samalkha in Panipat, expressed concern over the gradual weakening of the RTI Act in the State since the setting up of the commission. He said the officials neither shared the information sought under RTI nor paid the penalty. Seeking effective implementation of the law, Mr. Kapoor demanded that the outstanding penalty dues be collected immediately and an enforcement wing of the SIC be set-up. He also sought the settlement of pending cases through a special campaign.
As per SIC website, the appeals in as many as 3,471 cases are pending before the commission.
Chief Information Commissioner, Haryana, Yash Pal Singal, told The Hindu that the SIC had taken “very concrete and effective steps” in this regard and there was a slight improvement. He said the Drawing and Disbursement Officers were told that they would be held personally responsible for not deducting the penalty amount and directions were given to recover the dues even from the pension of the defaulting officials.
