Corpn engineer fails to furnish RTI info, fined Rs 25K

Arappor Iyakkam had sought the details of a road tender and filed an RTI with the bus route roads division on July 31, 2018. It sought information on the list of roads and rates finalised, Venkatesan said. 

“The tender was secured by SP Builders. The CAG had found a loss of Rs 34 lakh to the exchequer,” he said. 

The information and first appeal were rejected and the second appeal was filed with the Information Commission, he said, adding that despite Information Commissioner G Murugan directing the PIO to provide the information, it was not forthcoming. 

The Commissioner issued a show-cause to the PIO and the appellate authority asking them why they should not be penalised and disciplinary action should not be initiated. 

“We thought that justice would be done but no subsequent order came from the commission on the penalty,” he said. The Information Commissioner Murugan, who initially argued that the order was a matter of communication between the commission and the Corporation, agreed to send the copy of the order in February this year, he said. 

Venkatesan filed an RTI on February 14, 2020, with the Commission seeking the copy of the final order in his second appeal. He had filed the first appeal on March 20 but it was received by the office only on May 6 due to the lockdown. On July 18, he filed the second appeal but received a letter from the first appellate authority dated June 10 (with seal dated August 26) by the end of August that his request was rejected. He said while he waited for the second appeal hearing, he received the copy of the order dated August 1 stating executive engineer and superintending engineer had been penalised.