Business
Today: New Delhi: Saturday, 06 September 2014.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up Air India (AI) for holding back
information on free travel provided to its top brass, ministers and
parliamentarians sought under a Right to Information (RTI) Act application and
set a 15-day deadline for the national carrier to make public such information.
Mail Today on
May 28 reported how AI has been liberally doling out as many as 12-24 free
tickets annually on its domestic and international network to family members of
its huge army of 23,000 employees. Strangely, the AI management last year
decided to continue offering free tickets to sons and daughters-in-law of its
employees as well, the Mail Today report had further stated.
Issuing a
show-cause notice to AI demanding explanation on why it did not give the
information within the mandated 30 days, information commissioner Yashowardhan
Azad directed the carrier to make it public within 15 days and submit a written
submission latest by October 10.
Azad also
asked AI to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it under
Section 20 (1) of the RTI Act for not providing information within the
prescribed period. AI respondents cut a sorry figure as they were not in a
position to answer CIC over the delay in furnishing the information because
they had brought the wrong file of the same applicant.
The case
relates to an application filed by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal, who wanted to
know the guidelines regarding free air travel extended to ministers,
parliamentarians, civil aviation ministry officials, and AI officials and their
family members. He had also sought information on the estimated annual cost to
AI for providing such free air travel.
Agrawal had
also sought the copy of minutes of meetings of 'Committee on violation of
protocol-norms and contemptuous behaviour of government officers with members
of the Lok Sabha' in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. When
information was not provided to Agrawal, he approached the CIC.
The airline
has been reluctant in replying to RTI queries in several instances. In some
cases, the office of the chief vigilance commissioner has also instructed to AI
to furnish details of RTI queries related to corruption and other complaints
but the carrier has largely declined to furnish details.
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