Due to the official’s continued misdemeanour, the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) has ordered disciplinary action against him under Section 22 of the RTI Act.
The official who is under scrutiny is D Hemanth. He has bee trying to outwit the commission since long, which has been hearing cases against him from 2009 onwards. In all these years, he has always remained absent before the commission.
Trouble started when Hemanth was posted on a deputation to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) as Assistant Executive Engineer (Cottonpet). He was a Public Information Officer (PIO), even after that he repeatedly failed to give information sought by several applicants.
On March 22, 2016, when yet another case against Hemanth came up for hearing, State Information Commissioner L Krishnamurthy decided to take stringent action against him.
In this case, Hemanth had denied T K Renukappa, a resident of Laggere, information he had first sought in May 2012. When it was known that the PIO was none other than Hemanth, the commission searched the previous instances of similar violations. The commission wrote to the Urban Development Department and learnt that Hemanth had been sent back to his parent department (PWD) back in 2014 itself. He is currently working as AEE in the department in Chitradurga.
During the enquiry, the commission also learnt that Hemanth had been fined Rs 2.29 lakh in 24 cases but paid only Rs 1.45 lakh. Taking serious note of the matter, the commission has asked M Lakshminarayana, Principal Secretary, PWD, to immediately take disciplinary action against Hemanth. It also asked Lakshminarayana to furnish the action taken report at the earliest.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
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