PIO Hall Of Shame: PIOs Fined For Stupidity

PIOs, you are public servants. Arrogance does not do you much good.  You are our servants.

We are your masters, us, the tax paying law abiding citizens of India. Please start obeying your real masters, not the political excuses that come and go and whose rear ends you tend to lick.

To show these excuses of PIOs in their proper light, here are some of the superstars of the PIO hall of shame.

• Yogesh Mehta: Law Officer of a disgraced institution known as the NCW. He has been fined Rs 25,000 by the CIC for ignoring an RTI request regarding the Nithari murders, filed by a Naval officer.  By the way folks, he said the following, “489a is one of the most important tools in the hands of Indian women who have suffered abuse” in an article published by Indian Express. SIF activists have filed a number of RTIs and I’ve heard that he has been hiding to avoid answering their calls. He has gone to the extent of having someone from the NCW say that he was on a 6 month vacation. This is what the CIC had to say while fining him:

• NCW has been so lackadaisical hitherto as to neglect its duty to conform to the Sec 4 (1) sub-section (b) (iv)of the RTI Act,2005 it will do so now, by publishing the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions, in consonance with our decision on File CIC/WB/C/2008/00426.
• Moreover, we find a failure to respond within the mandated time limit to the application of 20.12.2007. PIO Shri Yogesh Mehta will, therefore Show-cause as to why he should not be held liable for a penalty of Rs. 25,000/- for the delay between 20.1.2008 when the response became due up to 9.5.2008 when it was actually provided, a delay of 110 days @ Rs. 250/- per day not exceeding Rs. 25,000/-.

• Dipender Pathak: Excuse of a PIO at Police HQ and Addl. Commissioner of Police (Gen. Admn). This is what the CIC had to say about him:

• “The above cases are held in File Nos. CIC/WB/C/2007/00274 and 275. Although PIO was given full opportunity to be heard as mandated u/s 20(1), neither have we received any written reply nor has he or the errant officials appeared before us in person. Under the circumstances, we find Shri Dipender Pathak, PIO Police HQ and Addl. Commissioner of Police (Gen. Admn) liable for the penalty in both cases up to a maximum of Rs. 25,000/- each, amounting to Rs. 50,000/- on the whole.”  You can read the CIC’s order here.

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