City News

Metro official fined Rs 50k for ignoring RTI pleas

ials, however, did not respond to this too. “They are taking people for granted. Despite the complaint being about the inconvenience being faced by the public at Metro stations, they didn’t act on it. They even ignored the information sought about action taken on the complaint. I had no other option but to move the SIC,” said Pramod, who is also the state convener for the RTI cell of JD(U).

Vasanth Rao was fined Rs 25,000 on November 28 for failure to furnish information on the list of catalogue and index of the records/files maintained under section 4 (1) (a) of RTI act and details of information declared suo motu under Section 4 (1) (b) pertaining to BMRCL since its establishment. On December 20, he was again fined the same amount for not responding to an RTI application filed by Pramod. The state information commission has also directed that the amount be deducted from his salary in installments.

When Bangalore Mirror contacted Vasanth Rao, he feigned ignorance about the fines and denied that the Metro official refused to provide information.

“I’m not aware of these orders (by SIC). Also, it is not that we don’t provide information — we do provide information, but they sometimes do not satisfy those who have sought it. We will look into these orders and go for an appeal,” he said.