Admin heads will be summoned for inaction

The administrative head of any office will be summoned under the Right to Information Act if the office does not provide applicants with information within the stipulated period, said the Information Commission yesterday.
The commission gave the warning during a hearing at the commission headquarters in the capital, after it learned that the Department of Roads and Highways in Sirajganj showed negligence in providing information to journalist Golam Mostafa Jibon.
Seeking information like the amount of money allocated for construction of roads and highways in the district starting from February 2010, Jibon filed the application on February 13 this year.
Not receiving any information in 20 days from the designated officer, Jibon appealed to the appellate authority, M Noor-e-Alam, executive engineer of R&H Department.
Noor-e-Alam asked Jibon to communicate with sub-assistant engineer of the office but still receiving no information he complained to the commission.
Pointing at Rafiqul Islam, designated officer of the R&H Department, Chief Information Commissioner Muhammad Zamir said, “This is totally unacceptable.”
In response, Rafiqul Islam said he took the responsibility of the designated officer on June 17 and was not well aware of the application.
Information Commissioner Prof Sadeka Halim said, “The designated officer who was in charge before him [Rafiqul] should also have been summoned.”
Zamir asked Rafiqul to provide the applicant with information by July 19 or face serious consequences.