'Symbolic Punishment': UP Official Asked To Serve Mid-Day Meals For Delay In Responding To RTI

Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission has directed Chandrika Prasad, the PIO of Noonra village in Ghazipur to feed mid-day meals to students and also record the act.

School children eating mid-day meal. (Representative Image/ Getty)

Lucknow: In a rare and "out of the box" punishment, a Public Information Officer (PIO) has been asked to serve mid-day meals to as many as 250 students in Ghazipur after the official delayed in replying to an RTI application. 

According to reports, the Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission has directed Chandrika Prasad, the village development officer and PIO of Noonra village in Ghazipur to feed mid-day meals to students and also record the act.

Prasad will have to submit the video to the commission, while ensuring that the expenditure on the meals does not exceed Rs 25,000, news agency PTI reported.  

The 'symbolic' punishment was announced after an RTI applicant Bhupendra Kumar Pandey had sought information about development work in Noonra village in Ghazipur district under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2016.

However, Prasad did not respond to the RTI within the stipulated time period of 30 days.

Under the RTI Act, PIOs are bound to provide the information within 30 days of receiving the RTI application, failing to which a cash penalty is imposed on them under section 20(1) of the RTI Act.

UP Information Commissioner Ajay Kumar Uprety delivered the judgement on Monday and asked Pandey to serve meals to students of a primary school in the village on April 29.

"Generally, we impose a cash penalty of Rs 25,000 on the PIOs who cause delay in providing information under the RTI Act," Uprety told PTI.

He also clarified that Prasad didn't deliberately cause the delay and has been given a "symbolic and out of the box punishment". Furthermore, Uprety pointed out that the real culprit was former village development officer and PIO (Panchayati Raj department) Gopal Singh who has been fined of Rs 25,000 under section 20(1) of the RTI Act.

(With inputs from PTI.)