Penalty for IAS officer

GULBARGA: The Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 under RTI Act-2005 on Manoj Jain, IAS, Chief Executive Officer of Raichur zilla panchayat, for not providing information sought by former minister S K Kanta under the RTI Act when he was Commissioner of Gulbarga Maha Nagara Palike.The Commission has given Jain the option of paying the amount either in lump sum, or in monthly instalments of Rs 5,000 from his salary to be deposited with the Government Treasury.The Commission also awarded a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Kanta. The commission heard Kanta’s complaint on June 1, 2011, and directed Jain to allow Kanta to inspect the connected records on June 27, 2011, and provide the balance information free of cost.But Kanta was not allowed to check the connected records and no information was given to him despite its order, the Commission said. Then it issued a show-cause notice to Jain asking him why Kanta could not be awarded Rs 2,000 as compensation for the mental agony he suffered. The Commission said in spite of its earlier order and notice, Jain did not take any action.Kanta had sought some details under the RTI Act on July 3, 2009. But he was not given any response till August 18, 2011. When he moved the Commission in this regard, it imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on one Shankar Kollur and on R P Jadhav, Assistant Executive Engineer.It directed Jain to monitor the recovery of a penalty amount. But this direction was not complied with by Jain.First on December 8 last year, the Commission directed Jain to allow the petitioner to inspect the record on January 17, 2011. Again on June 1, 2011, it directed the Commissioner of GMNP to allow Kanta to inspect the records on June 27, 2011.All these directions were ignored by Jain, the commission observed.