Lack of coordination between offices invites SIC flak

The case pertains to a complaint filed by one Jatinder Kumar Goyal of Mansa,who had sought information in October 2008 about the selection list of women candidates of general category who had applied for English teachers’ jobs in August 2007. Not getting a reply,he moved the SIC in January this year. On the fifth hearing in July,a show-cause notice was served on nodal public information officer Darshan Singh Dhaliwal,directing him to submit an affidavit,giving reasons for the delay and explaining why compensation should not be awarded to the complainant and penalty imposed on him.

Dhaliwal submitted the affidavit in August,saying he was not the PIO of the recruitment cell,as it was headed by Surjit Kaur.

Incidentally,a penalty of over Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on Kaur in separate cases in the last three to four months.

Dhaliwal said the letter of the SIC was sent to the branch concerned,but it failed to comply. The SIC said it was evident from the affidavit that the nodal PIO was helpless in providing the required information due to the lack of coordination among the branches of DPI (Schools),which “work in watertight compartments”.

“Consequently,neither the orders issued by the commission nor the applications received under the RTI Act are dealt with,” Gill said,adding that the affidavit pointed to the lackadaisical manner in which the public authority worked. “Apparently,there is a system failure due to incorrect office procedures,” he said.

The SIC rued that though it was close to four years since the Act had come into effect,officials of the department were not properly sensitised and trained.

He directed the DPI’s office to work out a system for proper implementation of the Act and inform the commission by October 30.

In two similar complainants by Janak Singh and Khushpreet Kaur,both from Mansa,where the respondent was DPI (Schools Education),Gill said given the disconnect between the nodal PIO and his officials/branches and the ill-managed system,no single individual could be blamed for the delay. He said:

“Once an application under RTI is transferred by the PIO to the official/branch concerned,then under Section 5(5) its head becomes the ‘deemed’ PIO.”