New Delhi, March 19: The Central Information Commission has held the ministry of water resources guilty of violating the Right to Information Act in a case related to the Narmada dispute.

The custodian of the act has also penalised the ministry’s central water commission for trying to “wash its hands of information” on the subject of persons displaced by dams being built on the Narmada.

An appellant, Rahul Mangaonkar, had asked the water commission for a state-wise list of people affected by the projects on the river under the act last November. The application also sought to know whether Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar had provided any such list to the panel, but received no reply.

Mangaonkar then filed an appeal to the information commission. On his complaint, the commission issued the water panel a showcause notice in February, asking it to explain why action should not be taken against it for denying information under the RTI Act.

The panel replied that it has no list of people displaced but could not explain the delay in its response to Mangaonkar’s complaint.

The information commission has asked the secretary, water resources ministry, to penalise the director of the water panel, P. Padmanabhan, Rs 15,500.