Zee News: New Delhi: Friday,
April 05, 2013.
Taking a
strict view of non- compliance of its directive, the Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT) has asked central ministries to disclose tour details of
their officials in public domain.
"It has
come to the notice of this Department that some of the public authorities are
not disclosing such information or are providing only partial information and
are also not updating it regularly. It is again advised that all public authorities
may strictly comply with the advisory," the DoPT said in an official
memorandum issued yesterday.
In September
last year, the DoPT had directed all central government ministries to make
public details of foreign and domestic tours undertaken by ministers and senior
officers.
The suo motu
move was taken after central government departments received frequent
applications under the Right to Information Act seeking details of official
tours undertaken by ministers and other officials.
The decision
to put the tour details online is in compliance with the RTI Act which mandates
a public authority to provide as much information suo motu to public at regular
intervals through various means of communications, a DoPT official said. As per
the details put on the DoPT website, officials have spent Rs 5.30 crore in 18
visits to places like Switzerland, Zurich and Kuala Lumpur among others between
October and December 2012.
Each central
department has been directed to put the details including nature of the tour,
places visited, period, number of people included in the official delegation
and total cost of such travel undertaken by a minister or senior officer.
However,
intelligence organisations, including RAW, IB, CBI and Enforcement Directorate,
are exempted from the directive.
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