When Right to Information (RTI) Act came to rescue of many officials to get justice, one of the official of Regional Engineering Services (RES) was trying to misuse it just to evade repaying of over Rs 6.83 lakh swindled by him in the name of payment.
The employee posted as junior engineer in RES Department at Muzaffarnagar reportedly filed several applications under Right to Information (RTI) Act just to harass his seniors and terrorise them so that they would not pressurise him to pay recovery amount. The said employee also knocked the door of the State Information Commissioner (SIC) accusing the RES officials of not providing him with information sought by him under RTI. However, after SIC learnt of the fact and that the employee was trying to blackmail his seniors, Hafiz Usman now ordered district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar to conduct a probe and ensure recovery of money besides initiating criminal proceedings against the accused official.
Reports said that one Suresh Verma, posted as junior engineer in the RES department at Muzaffarnagar had filed several RTIs with district development officer (designated officer for RTI), through which he sought information like whether the payment regarding the work done by the Department in Shahpur block in 2007, has been made or not, if yes than which contractor the money was paid, who were accused of tempering muster roll and swindling of government funds, and what steps has been taken to recovery the amount etc. Similarly another RTI was filed by Verma in which he asked that how Yellow brick has been allowed to lay `kharanja’, who sanctioned contract after violating all the norms. Yet another RTI was filed to give details of all work done in the Shahpur block in 2009 etc.
Disclosing about the above move of the officer, SIC Hafiz Usman said that Suresh had came to his court and made an appeal regarding negligent approach of the government officials to reply to his RTI. He also alleged that the officers were indulged in corruption, hence they were not replying to his RTI. According to Usman, he immediately summoned the officers concerned to his court with the direction to present with all the facts as demanded through the RTI.
Usman further said that the District Development Officer along with other sub-ordinates appear before him last week. He said that he was shocked when the officer informed him that they provided all the information but Verma was just trying to blackmail them after they issued notice to him to repay the money, which he swindled in a government project. SIC disclosed that Verma was involved in corruption in the Department and had alleged to have tempered muster roll and siphoned-off over Rs 6.83 lakhs. He said that the probe pointed involvement of Verma and five other JEs but all the other repay the money but only Verma, was not making repayment and to evade the punishment, he was using RTI as a tool against his seniors. Usman said that after learning of the facts, he directed DM of Muzaffarnagar to initiate proceedings against the guilty and to ensure recovery of over Rs 6.83 lakh from Verma.