AP Information Commissioner imposes Rs. 1.2 lakh as penalty on PIOs in one month
7 Jan, 2013The State Information Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh C. Madhukar Raj has penalized the public information officers (PIOs) in the state for negligent handling of applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with a total penalty of Rs. 1,22,500 in 19 cases in December 2012.
A release from the state information commission has shown that Mr. Raj heard a total of 253 appeals and disposed 251 of them. In 19 cases, he imposed a penalty on the PIOs for failing to deal diligently with the RTI queries. The release stated that he had heard a total of 1,429 appeals and complaints in 6 months, disposed of 1,427 of them and had imposed penalty in 128 cases on public information officers. He also heard and disposed of 79 show cause notice cases.
The State Information Commission also stressed that citizens must pay the application fee for getting information under the RTI Act.
As per the AP fee rules, no application fee will be charged in respect of public authorities at village level, Rs.5 will be collected per application at Mandal level public authorities while in the other areas, Rs.10 per application is chargeable as the application fee.