Violation of RTI rules: Two officers fined

BALASORE: Two officials of Balasore Regional Improvement Trust (BRIT) have been fined Rs 12,500 each and disciplinary action would be initiated against an executive engineer for not providing information sought under the RTI Act. Sources said State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Tarunkanti Mishra has ordered the then Public Information Officers Panchanan Behera and Prasanta Kumar Mohapatra of BRIT to pay the fine and asked the Irrigation Department authorities to take disciplinary action against executive engineer BK Padhi. Behera is now posted as junior engineer at the town planning unit in Bhawanipatana while Padhi, who was the then secretary of BRIT, is now posted as executive engineer of Telengiri canal division in Jeypore. BRIT chairman Gouri Kumar Rout said the CIC had been asked to deduct the fine amount from the salaries of the two PIOs from July if they did not pay the same by   this month-end. The action was taken following an appeal before the CIC by one Dilip Kumar Das of Balasore who on March 12, 2008 had sought information about a kalyan mandap built along BB street in the town.He wanted to know whether the owner of Jagadhatri kalyan mandap has obtained the permission of the BRIT to build it in a thickly populated area. While Behera did not care to provide him the info, after his transfer to Bhawanipatana, Mohapatra too sat on the matter. Though Das had then appealed before Padhi, the first appellate authority, he also chose to remain silent. Later it was moved to the CIC.