Times of India: Dehradun: Thursday, December 14, 2017.
Responding to
an RTI query filed by whistleblower IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi regarding the
total black money brought from abroad by the Modi government from June 2014
till date, the PMO told the officer that “the request is not covered under RTI
rules.”
According to
Chaturvedi, he had in August filed the RTI a copy of which is with TOI seeking
the response to over a dozen questions from the PMO.
The queries
included besides the details of the black money recovered from abroad,
particulars of the quantum of money deposited in citizens’ bank accounts till
date and the efforts made by the PMO in this regard. Replying to Chaturvedi,
Praveen Kumar, under secretary and central public information officer in the PMO
wrote, “The request made by you is not covered under the definition of
information as per section 2 (1) of the RTI Act.”
Chaturvedi
had also sought details of complaints submitted to the PM on corruption charges
against serving central ministers from June 1, 2014 and August 5, 2017, and the
action taken by the PMO in addressing these complaints. In response, the PMO
official wrote, “The request made you is generic and vague. The CIC in the case
of Anil Kumar Mittal versus Miranda House has observed that ‘information
seekers are expected to seek pointed and specific information and not to make
roving and open-ended enquiries’.”
In response
to another of Chaturvedi’s queries on the amount spent by the central
government on the advertisements related to publicity of the government from
June 1, 2014 till date Kumar replied that no expenditure has been incurred by
the PMO on such advertisements.
Among the
other queries that the Magsaysay award-winning official wanted addressed were
details of efforts made by the PMO regarding appointment of Lokpal, a list of
products manufactured in the country as an outcome of the Make In India
initiative, details of the number of persons given employment under the Skill
India initiative and documents related to “any improvement in any of the
parameters including Biological Oxygen Demand/Dissolved Oxygen Content etc in
the waters of river Ganges after June 1, 2014 as a result of the Namami Gange
project.” He also wanted details of the expenditure made on advertisements and
promotional events of the Make In India,Skill India and Namami Gange projects.
These queries
along with a few others posed by Chaturvedi were transferred by the PMO to the
concerned ministries and departments and the official was “advised to approach
the concerned central public information officer/appellate authorities in the
transferee public authorities in this regard.”
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