PANJIM: The Goa State Information Commission (GSIC) has asked the Chief Secretary (CS) to seek an explanation from former Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) commissioner Sanjith Rodrigues for his failure to decide the first appeal filed under the Right of Information (RTI) Act.
The Commission has observed that Rodrigues, the then First Appellate Authority of the CCP scheduled hearing on the appeal four to five times and kept the applicant waiting without any hearing and simply postponed the hearing to the next date even after the stipulated period was over. This approach of the authority represented by Rodrigues was deplorable and it had resulted into unnecessary harassment of the applicant.
The State Information Commission has passed these strictures against Rodrigues in an order delivered recently, on an appeal filed by Shrikant Gaonkar, a resident of Ribandar.
Gaonkar had appealed before the Commission being aggrieved with the denial of information by the Public Information Officer (PIO) and non hearing by the First Appellate Authority of CCP.
The Commission held the PIO guilty of not furnishing the correct information to the applicant and issued show cause notice to the PIO under Section 20(1) and 20(2) of the RTI Act.
The Commission held that being a senior officer Rodrigues was required to hear and decide the appeal as mandated by the RTI Act and issue necessary instructions to the PIO, which he failed to do. The Commission has recommended to the Chief Secretary to seek explanation from Rodrigues and issue instructions to all First Appellate Authorities to respect the provisions of the RTI Act.
