Corporation engineer fined for not sharing RTI info with resident

The Tamil Nadu Information Commission (TNIC), headed by S Muthuraj, imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on a Chennai Corporation engineer, who failed to share information with a resident, who filed an RTI petition. The engineer has to pay the compensation to the petitioner.

Petitioner P Kalyana Sundaram filed an RTI petition with public information officer and executive engineer Saravanan of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zone of Chennai Corporation seeking details pertaining to an OSR land in Ayanavaram.

Kalyana Sundaram filed the petition in January 2020 and filed the first appeal seeking the details after one month as the public information officer failed to furnish the information within 30 days. In March, the petitioner filed a second appeal in vain.

Irked by the action of the public information officer, Kalyana Sundaram filed a complaint with the State information commission on January 29, 2020—one year after he filed the first RTI application.

During the hearings, the public information officer claimed that information available with the civic body has been provided but some details are with Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Revenue Department. However, the petitioner alleged that a building had been constructed on OSR land and sought further details.

But the concerned officer failed to share complete information despite repeated orders. “Under section 19 (8) (b) of RTI, 2005 Act, the public information officer should pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for failing to share complete information,” the order said.

The commission also directed the public information officer to share the payment of fine details over WhatsApp.