Former PIO of NDMC fined Rs 50k for RTI delays

NEW DELHI: A former public information officer of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has been penalised by the Chief Information Commission for failing to provide information on RTI applications.

A total fine of Rs 50,000 has been imposed on V K Taneja, also an executive engineer in the municipal body, for not providing information to an appellant in two separate cases.

The CIC imposed the fine after the cases went pending in the Appellant Authority of the NDMC for a long period.

In the first case, the commission has fined Rs 25,000 for a delay of 493 days on an information sought on October 12 last year. In the second case, Taneja was fined the same amount due to delay of 474 days.

"Our record as such at NDMC is fairly good in responding to RTIs or providing information to people. In this case, it appears to be a case of habitual offender and therefore he will have to suffer the consequences," a senior NDMC official said.