Departmental action against Mansa executive engineer recommended

The difference between the two figures came to Rs 9.37 lakh,which was the loss suffered by the government and shared between Singh and the contractor,complainant H C Arora alleged.

When Singh,who had the additional charge of Barnala sub-division,faced a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court,he took the defence that draftsman Ram Singh had forcibly got the letters from the contractor. He also claimed that when the contractor lodged a complaint against Ram Singh,he issued him a letter,seeking explanation. This letter issued by the executive engineer from his Barnala office bore “special despatch numbers”.

Under the RTI Act,Arora had sought the special numbers’ register — suspecting that the letter was officially never issued to Ram Singh — and a copy of Singh’s logbook for a particular period.

Since the documents were not given,Information Commissioner Lt Gen P K Grover referred the matter to Kulbir Singh,Secretary,PWD (B&R),for taking cognisance and looking into the non-availability of the documents. The SIC also asked him to fix responsibility and direct the chief engineer to confirm about the whereabouts of the documents.

In response,the chief engineer said while the logbook was not traceable,an inquiry conducted to fix responsibility found no official guilty. About the special number register,Singh,through an affidavit,said no such register was maintained.

When the public information officer (PIO) was served a show-cause notice,he said in his affidavit that he had not received the RTI request and came to know of the case only during the proceedings held in the commission.

The SIC,however,said the application was sent by registered post and “it is difficult to perceive that a registered letter was not delivered”. “The response of the PIO has been vague and lackadaisical. It is surprising to find that the inquiry regarding loss of logbook was conducted only after it was ordered by the information commission and the matter referred to Kulbir Singh. As regards special register,the respondent has been vacillating,” Lt Gen Grover said.

He directed that the case be placed before Kulbir Singh for taking departmental action and awarded a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Arora.