Bhojpur officials reluctant to provide information under RTI Act

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Ara : The officials in Bhojpur district are reluctant to desired information to petioners under Right to Information Act (RTI) Act.

Advocate, Ara Civil Court, Vivekanand Priyadarshi, said that some officials in the district administration were drawing house rent despite being allotted flats in the officers’ flat. When the matter came to his notice, he sought information from the Bhojpur District Magistrate under the RTI on March 5, 2018, seeking information about the employees posted at the National Informatic Centre (NIC), Bhojpur, with their designation besides salary details of the employees including basic salary, DA, house rent and other allowances till January 2018. But the DIO, NIC, informed that the desired information could not be provided under section 8(1) RTI 2005.

The advocate said that he had sought information from the DM about the DIO/ADIO, RT Manager and other employees posted in the NIC but the DIO instad of the DM replied to him.

Vijay Shankar Tiwari, advocate, Ara Civil Court said that government had allotted fund for purchase of 32 wooden chowkis for the inmates of Ara Remand Home but the Assistant Director, District Child Welfare Unit (DCWU), Santosh Kumar Chaudhary, purchased below standard wooden chowkis and when he sought Xerox copies of the vouchers under the RTI, he flatly refused saying that it was a personal documents and so the desired information could not be made available.

Earlier, the Assistant Director had allegedly embezzled fund meants for purchase of blankets for the inmates of Ara Remand Home and had provided vouchers for the same at that time. On complaint, the Deputy Development Commissioner, Shubham Shubhankar, had ordered an inquiry into it but the inquiry report has been shelved even as the DDC himself wrote to the SDO about embezzlement of fund and asked him to provide the inquiry report to the petitioner. The advocate further said that the Assistant Director, DCWU, drew house rent per month though he lives at the officers’ flat.