Times of India: Chandigarh: Wednesday,
June 29, 2016.
The Haryana
government has refused to disclose the property details of CM Manohar Lal
Khattar and his ministers under the RTI Act terming it "personal
information", even though the previous Congress government under Bhupinder
Singh Hooda had given the details under the Act.
Activist PP
Kapoor, who had sought the information from the cabinet branch of the state
government in March, approached the state information commission which in turn
has issued a notice to the officials. Urvashi Gulati, a former chief secretary
of Haryana, will now hear the explanations of the officials on July 28.
Interestingly
, the Haryana government has refused to give the details when the Union cabinet
does not mind sharing the same details of even PM Narendra Modi online.
In a 2011
order by the then Cabinet secretary K Chandrashekhar, Union ministers are
expected to disclose details of their assets and liabilities by August 31
according to the code of conduct. The government order came after RTI
applications demanding transparency in property details of public servants were
stonewalled for months.
Kapoor has
argued that the ministers are public servants and their property details should
be given under RTI. When the officials denied the details, Kapoor approached
undersecretary-level officials of the branch, who said that the information was
personal "which stands exempted from disclosure under clause (i) of
section 8 (1) of the RTI Act unless it involves a larger public interest as
held by the SC".
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