SCN issued to non-government officials for state-sponsored projects
4 May, 2013An application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the status details of implementation of various schemes in Marathwada region launched under centrally sponsored Bharat Nirman Yojana.
The reply provided by the public information officer (PIO) of the rural water supply scheme contained the routine information and the PIO informed that specific information cannot be provided as the said information was not available with his office. The PIO, in his reply, said that the required information was available with the office bearers of different local level committees. He also mentioned that as such office bearers are non government officials, they refused to entertain the letters sent by the PIO for furnishing information.
The matter came up with the Aurangabad bench of the State Information Commission (SIC) of Maharashtra which held that since all the funds released by the centre were entrusted with the heads of local committees, it was their duty to provide the information to the appellant and the dereliction of such duty makes them liable for penalty. The SIC, putting blame of failure to provide information about centrally sponsored projects on non government officials, has issued show cause notice to the office bearers of such panels and has asked the Aurangabad Zila Parishad chief executive officer to serve show cause notices to all others concerned.