Information sought on Modi’s foreign travel expenses ‘too vague and wide’ to be revealed, RTI reply from PMO says

Posted On March 15th, 2015, Posted By - Admin

Information sought on Modi’s foreign travel expenses ‘too vague and wide’ to be revealed, RTI reply from PMO says

For online RTI filing in India kindly visit the below website

https://www.filertionline.in

CHENNAI: The times of India report,

“Information sought is too vague and wide.” That was the response from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to an RTI application about the amount of money spent on foreign visits made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he assumed office on May 26 last year.

In response to an RTI application filed by TOI, the PMO said Modi made eight foreign trips in 2014, of which he spent a maximum of five days in the US.

The reply said Modi had spent four days each in Brazil, Australia and Nepal followed by Japan (three days), Myanmar (two days), Bhutan and Fiji (one day each) in 2014.

Nepal is the only foreign country which Modi visited twice — from August 3 to 5, (state visit) and from November 25 to 27 (to attend the SAARC summit).

Of the 220 days in office last year (from May 26, 2014 to December 31, 2014), Modi was abroad for 24 days. This means he was in a foreign country once in nine days since he became the Prime Minister.

Modi is currently away on a five-day visit to three island nations – Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka — which is also his first foreign tour in 2015.

Modi is also expected to visit France, Germany, Canada, China, Russia and Turkey in the next few months.

In 2011, the Central Information Commission instructed the cabinet secretariat to disclose the amount spent on the travel of ministers and VVIPs because of ‘large public interest’ in the matter.

Though the PMO now stonewalled queries related to the money spent on Modi’s foreign tours, in 2013 it disclosed the amount spent on the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s air travels expenses — Rs 642 crore in nine years. The amount was revealed under the mandatory proactive disclosure clause of the RTI Act.

Interestingly, the PMO has disclosed only the domestic tours of Modi on its website under RTI Act without mentioning the amount spent or the list of people who accompanied.

The Prime Minister made 48 domestic tours since May 2014, of which 19 were for non-official purposes, according to the website.

It revealed that Modi had visited Maharashtra 12 times in the period followed by Jammu & Kashmir (nine), Haryana (seven) and Jharkhand (six).

Not surprisingly, all these states had elections in the recent past. The Prime Minister did not visit states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab and West Bengal. These states did not have any major elections in this period.

For online RTI filing please visit link below…

https://www.filertionline.in