Compensation to be paid if info not provided under RTI

PNS | Bhubaneswar

The Right to Information Act would be followed in a more stringent way in the State. If any department fails to provide the information as sought by the public, the department would be liable to pay compensation to the person. Earlier, the concerned official was only liable to pay the penalty. 

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level high level meeting on Implementation of RTI held at the State Secretariat on Friday. While the Chief Secretary presided over the meeting, the State Commissioner Jagadananda attended the meeting. Secretaries of all the department all attended the meeting.

It was decided that a special cell would solely be created whose basic job is to provide the information to the public. This scheme has already been introduced in the Bihar and it has been a huge success.

Information and Public Relation (I&PR) Department would act as a nodal agency. All the departments will provide the information to the department on a monthly basis. By the end of May 31, a detailed annual report would be prepared.

Steps would be taken to provide information to the people under the RTI in the tribal areas without any charge. So far action has been taken against 145 officials for not imparting information under the RTI