Haryana has become the first state in the country to make and implement a mechanism to recover the penalty from the salaries of state public information officers (SPIOs) for not providing information under the Right to Information Act.But the action has not been taken by the government in a day. RTI activist PP Kapoor fought for recovery of the pending penalty amount from the defaulting SPIOs in the Court of Lokayukta Haryana Justice Haripal Verma for six years.Following the directions of the Lokayukta, Haryana, the state government made a mechanism to recover the outstanding penalty amount from the defaulter SPIOs, which is almost Rs 2.94 crore. With this mechanism, the government will not only get the revenue by recovering the penalty amount, but it will also crack down on defaulter SPIOs.What petition is filed by the RTI activist?PP Kapoor, a Samalkha-based RTI activist, filed a complaint in the court of the Lokayukta, Haryana, on July 21, 2020, in which he alleged that SPIOs didn’t provide the information or deposit the penalty imposed upon them by the State Information Commission.The complainant alleged that the penalty imposed upon them has not been recovered by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) despite the directions issued by the Chief Secretary, Haryana.The complainant in his petition demanded to recover Rs 2.27 crore penalty from such 1726 defaulter SPIOs, including several HCS officials in the state and to initiate action against them as well as against the DDOs. Following the petition filed by Kapoor, the Lokayukta, Haryana, sent this to the Chief Secretary’s office and sought details.What report does Haryana government deposit before the Lokayukta court?Following the directions of the Lokayukta Haryana, state government in his report to the Lokayukta said that a total Rs 2.94 crore penalty is pending with the officials of 16 departments including Rs 1.34 crore penalty is pending with the SPIOs of Panchayat and Development Department; Rs 80.96 lakh with the officials of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) department; Rs 22.72 lakh with Education Department (DSE); 14.76 lakh from Revenue Department, Rs 19 lakh on Registrar Cooperative Society, Rs 1.22 lakh upon Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs; Rs 13.08 lakh upon Urban Estate Department; Rs 1.20 lakh upon Town and Country Planning; Rs 10.94 lakh upon HSVP earlier (HUDA); Rs 77,000 upon Transport Department etc.What is the mechanism developed by Haryana government?As per the mechanism formulated by the state government, the details of the defaulter officers/SPIOs whose penalty amount is pending shall be uploaded to the website.Similarly, the State Information Commission shall also submit a quarterly progress report of the defaulting SPIOs to the Head of Departments of respective officers where the SPIOs are posted or remain posted.The outstanding penalty amount will be deducted from the salary or pension of the defaulting SPIOs. The Chief Secretary has directed that outstanding penalty amounts from the salaries of the officials in service and retired officials.According to the mechanism, Rs 10,000 per month from the salary of a Class-A officer if he is in service and Rs 5,000 per month if he is retired. Rs 7,000 per month from the salary of a Class-B officer if he is in service and Rs 3,500 per month if he is retired.Rs 4,000 per month from the salary of a Class-C officer if he is in service and Rs 2,000 per month if he is retired. In the case of deceased SPIOs, the penalty imposed under the RTI Act, 2005, shall be waived, and no recovery proceedings shall be initiated.