U.P. SIC issues arrest warrant against four power men for failure to provide info under RTI

This is the first time that the commission has initiated such a strong penal action against erring officials ever since the RTI Act came into existence in 2005

The Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission (SIC) recently issued arrest warrant against four officials of the electricity department for not providing information to an applicant under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, and deliberately ignoring its summons.

This is the first time that the commission has initiated such a strong penal action against erring officials ever since the RTI Act came into existence. The arrest warrant has been issued by state information commissioner Ajaya Kumar Uprety in accordance with the provisions of Section 18 Sub section 3 of the RTI Act and powers given in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) Act 1908.

The arrest warrant was issued against the officials of electricity department of Varanasi that involves officials of SE (superintendent engineer) rank to that of SDO. The warrant has been issued against Anil Verma, Vidyut Vitran Mandal, Varanasi, executive engineer RK Gautam, public information officer SDO Sarvesh Anand and SDO Ravi Yadav.

In this connection, commissioner Uprety has ordered deputy commissioner of police, Kashi zone, Pramod Kumar to produce these official before the commission on February 20 when this case will be heard again in Lucknow and asked him to apprise the commission how this warrant is being executed.

The matter pertains to an power connection dated January 1, 1911, in Kazakpura area of Varanasi in the name of Uma Shankar Yadav. Not only this, the department has raised a bill of ?2.24 lakh against this connection and when the consumer Yadav disputed the bill and refused to pay it, the department issued an recovery challan against him.

A desperate Yadav approached all department officials to correct the bill but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Disappointed, Yadav took the recourse of the RTI. While hearing the case, the commission had asked the officials whether in 1911 the electricity was being given to consumers in Varanasi.

Secondly, how the bill was calculated and what was the cost per unit. Thirdly, which was the company that was transmitting power to consumers and lastly was UPPCL in existence then? However, the officials despite many summons did not answer.