THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It has now turned out that the state government has misled the High Court on the functioning of the State Information Commission. On August 31, the general administration de-partment, in its counter affidavit, had informed the Court that procedures were on to decide on the fate of suspended commissioner K. Natarajan.
However, an RTI reply received by National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information member M.T. Thomas revealed that “No particular officer in the office of the Gov-ernor had been entrusted with the follow-up proceedings”. In other words, no steps have been taken to either terminate or revoke the suspension of Mr Natarajan.
Information commissioner K. Natarajan has been under suspension since November 2012 but continues to draw subsistence allowance for the last 32 months. A rough estimate states that Mr Natarajan had carried home at least Rs 30 lakh for not doing anything for nearly three years.
Mr Natarajan, a retired IPS officer, was placed under suspension by the Governor on November 9, 2012, under section 17 (1) & (2), related to the removal of information commissioners, of the RTI Act 2005. He was suspended pending a formal inquiry by a judge of the Supreme Court into the allegation that he had tried to interfere with the Vigilance investigation into gifting of government land by leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan to his relative when he was chief minister.
Mr Natarajan is provided subsistence allowance as applicable to the chief secretary if he is put under suspension. The salary of Chief Secretary is around Rs 1,60,000 per month. Mr Natarajan term extends till April 22, 2016. Since no steps have been taken either to exonerate or terminate him, it is certain that he will continue to draw the subsistence all-owance for 11 more months.
