Puttur: In an incident reported on Friday, some miscreants barged into the Grama Panchayat office at Badagannur and vandalized the office; they also verbally abused the PDO and other staff. The reason was the failure to provide information under the RTI Act.

Sharada, PDO of the Grama Panchayat filed a complaint in this regard at Puttur rural police station.

The miscreants were identified as Shafi, Sadiq, Abdul Samad, Mohammad Iqbal and Tughlak, all residents of Hosanagar in Badagannur village.

Mohammad Iqbal arrived at the Grama Panchayat office on Friday and filed an application under the RTI Act seeking information about distribution of sites under the housing scheme. The PDO asked the applicant to submit the application along with a postal order of Rs10 and stated that it would take some time to furnish details.

Annoyed by this, the applicant verbally abused the PDO and other staff and also obstructed them from discharging duties.

A few days ago, a clash was reported between two groups regarding the damage of a flag post platform in Hosanagar. The police arrested Grama Panchayat president, Keshava Gowda, two others and registered a case against 20 others. It is said that the same people were involved in vandalizing the Grama Panchayat office.

It is said that though the PDO submitted a written complaint, no case was registered till Friday night.