Information pertaining to the land acquired by NALCO was sought - Respondent: The land oustees were not eligible to get employment as they did not come under the category of substantially affected persons - CIC accepted the apology & condoned the lapse
22 Jan, 2018O R D E R
1. The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) before the Public Information Officer (PIO), National Aluminium Co. Ltd. (NALCO), Bhubaneshwar seeking information on five points pertaining to the land acquired by NALCO in Kulad Mouza, Khata No. 54.
2. The appellant filed a second appeal before the Commission on the grounds that she is not satisfied with the information provided by the CPIO on point nos. 2 and 3 of her RTI application.
Hearing:
3. The appellant Smt. Sailabala Dhir, and the respondent Shri S.S. Panda, Assistant General Manager, NALCO, Bhubaneshwar attended the hearing through video conferencing.
4. The appellant submitted that she is seeking information regarding the person who had been provided employment, as a land oustee of Khata No. 54, Kulad Mouza, by NALCO. The appellant further submitted that NALCO denied information on the grounds that the particulars of land oustees are available with the District Administration, Angul.
5. The respondent submitted that the land is acquired by the District Administration under the Relief and Rehabilitation Policy formulated for NALCO. The respondent further submitted that as per the policy the project affected persons are categorized into two category:-
(i) less affected person and
(ii) substantially affected person.
The respondent also stated that none of the land oustees of Khata No. 54 came under the category of substantially affected persons. Hence, no one was eligible to get employment, as a land oustee, in NALCO. The respondent further submitted that, inadvertently, information in this regard could not be furnished to the appellant. The respondent tendered his unconditional apology for this lapse and requested the Commission to condone the same.
Decision:
6. The Commission, after hearing the submissions of both the parties and perusing the records, directs the respondent to provide complete and correct information on point nos. 2 and 3 of the RTI application to the appellant within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
7. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of. 8. Copy of the decision be provided free of cost to the parties.
(Sudhir Bhargava)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Smt. Sailabala Dhir v. National Aluminium Company Ltd., Bhubaneshwar in Decision No. CIC/NALCO/A/2017/309144 Dated 18.10.2017