IEP Chandigarh August 9
The Haryana Government has taken stringent steps to recover the amount of penalty imposed by the State Information Commission (SIC) under the RTI Act, 2005. All the controlling authorities have been directed to recover the penalty amount from the SPIOs.In an order issued by Haryana Chief Secretary, Sh Sanjeev Kaushal, it has also been stated that controlling authorities will not issue Last Pay Certificate/No Dues Certificate to such State Public Information Officers (SPIOs) till he or she deposits the amount of outstanding penalty and send a compliance report to the Registrar, State Information Commission, Haryana.The order further states that the Government has taken serious view of this lapse on part of the controlling authorities and decided that the amount of penalty be recovered from the concerned SPIOs as soon as possible. If these orders are not taken seriously by the public authorities, then strict action will be taken against him/her as per provision made in Haryana Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 2016.It is pertinent to mention here that a Monitoring Committee, to monitor the recovery of penalty imposed by the State Information Commission, Haryana under Section 20(1) of the RTI Act’ 2OO5, was constituted. In the meeting, it was decided to send an updated list of all such cases in which the penalty has not been recovered by the Commission from the concerned Secretary/HOD for effective recovery.
