Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Wednesday,
February 01, 2017.
Bills worth
Rs 119 crore pending towards cash-strapped Air India, generated for some
foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been cleared against the
back drop of a long battle by a retired naval officer using the RTI Act.
RTI applicant
Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra said that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on
January 30 uploaded on its website the details of bills worth about Rs 119.70
crore cleared for eight trips, which were shown pending or under process since
last year.
“I sincerely
hope that all the public authorities concerned i.e. PMO, Ministry of External
Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Air India will institute suitable norms
and guidelines to facilitate expeditious clearance of chartered flights bills
as the issue is directly concerned with the ‘Tax-Payers’ money,” Batra said.
The move
comes following an order of chief information commissioner RK Mathur, who had
refused to disclose the file notings related to the travel expenses incurred on
the Prime Minister’s visits abroad, but took note of Batra’s quest for timely
payment of bills by the government to the public sector units.
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