Mumbai: The state chief information commissioner has imposed a Rs 10,000 penalty on a BMC engineer after he failed to appear during an appeal hearing for denying information under the RTI act.The engineer paid the money to the applicant from his salary through two cheques of Rs 5,000 each on June 21. The 73-year-old applicant said the casual approach of the engineer attracted the penalty.“They take RTI applications very casually and always deny information after stating that the details do not come under the RTI,” said the applicant Aziz Amreliwala.Amreliwala used to live in one ground plus three building–Yusuf Mahal–in Marol Maroshi and had a shop on the ground floor. It was declared a dilapidated building and in 2005 the BMC demolished an “illegal” shed Amreliwala had put up inside the building compound. The BMC demolished the building in May 2014 as it was dangerous to live in.Last year Amreliwala filed an RTI application with the BMC’s building proposal department seeking information related to the demolition of Yusuf Mahal. He also filed another application asking for information related to a shed put up by a hospital years ago in the nearby area. The officer-engineer failed to provide him the information in the stipulated timeframe of 30 days. Amreliwala approached the first appellate authority who instructed the engineer to provide the information. But, when the engineer failed to comply the applicant approached the state chief information commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad.The order of the chief information commissioner (a copy of which is with TOI) reads, “During hearing it emerged that information was not provided to applicant within stipulated time frame which is violation of the RTI act”. It further reads, “The information officer should compensate the applicant for delaying the information from his salary under the section 19 (8) of the RTI act.”