Rohtak, May 28 -- Even as the Haryana government takes strict measures to recover penalties from 1,726 state public information officers (SPIOs) across 16 departments for not providing information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, a report from the Haryana Lokayukta has revealed that nearly Rs.2.95 crore in imposed penalties remains unrecovered. The report, in the response to a complaint filed by RTI activist PP Kapoor, who alleged that despite penalties being imposed by the Haryana State Information Commission, many officers neither deposited the amount nor faced effective recovery proceedings, even as the state government has issued directions in February this year for the recovery of the penalties from the salaries of the errant SPIOs. According to information, the panchayat department emerged as the biggest defaulter with pending penalties of over Rs.1,34,86,833, followed by the urban local bodies department with over 80.96 lakh, education department (Rs.22.77 lakh), registrar cooperative societies (Rs.19.99 lakh), revenue department (Rs.14.76 lakh), urban estate department (Rs.13.08 lakh) and Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (Rs.10.94 lakh). On the directions of the lokayukta, the state government formulated a mechanism for recovery of penalties from defaulting officers. Following this, the state government issued fresh directions on February 16 this year, under which Class-A officers will face deductions of Rs.10,000 per month from salary or Rs.5,000 from pension, while Class-B officers will pay Rs.7,000, and Class-C officers Rs.4,000 per month until full recovery of penalties. The report also revealed that penalties imposed on serving sarpanches would be recovered at the rate of Rs.3,000 per month from their honorarium, while recovery proceedings against former sarpanches could be initiated through deputy commissioners under revenue laws. Closing the complaint, lokayukta justice Hari Pal Verma recommended that the names of officers against whom RTI penalties remain pending should be uploaded on government websites....