Kolhapur Municipal Corporation PIO fined Rs14,250 by SIC

The State Information Commissioner (SIC) of Pune Vijay Kuvalekar has slapped a fine of Rs14,250 on SS Bhosale, the public information officer (PIO) and the labour officer of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) for the delay in providing information to an Right to Information (RTI) applicant last year.

The applicant, Umakant Bhosale, had applied under the RTI, in August last year asking for the educational qualification of erstwhile deputy municipal commissioner Ganesh Deshmukh. After the stipulated time of a month, Bhosale, went for the first appeal in December.

During the first appeal, the PIO gave the information that since the KMC did not have the necessary documents, it was not possible to answer the query. As this information was given after the stipulated period of 30 days, during the second appeal, the SIC had issued a show cause notice to the PIO as to why a fine not be imposed on him.

In response, the PIO had submitted in a written explanation that it was due to a technical oversight.

Taking a strong view about the ‘oversight’, the SIC in his order refused to accept the explanation given. Also, the clarification that the PIO had no intention of denying or hiding the information was not accepted by the SIC.  A fine of Rs14, 250 was slapped on the PIO, which would be recovered from his salary.