Free Press Journal: Mumbai: Tuesday, June 19, 2018.
The Ministry
of External Affairs has stated by way of an RTI reply that it did not maintain
a record of the number of passports issued by it or the revenue generated from
them.
The reply was
in connection with a Right to Information plea filed by Shailesh Gandhi, who,
incidentally, was Information Commissioner with the Central Information
Commission earlier.
Gandhi had
sought information on the number of fresh passports issued in the last five
years, the total revenue generated from them and the amount paid to the private
contractor, which along with the MEA, operates the passport issuance mechanism.
In its reply
on June 15, made through CPIO Subodh Kumar, the MEA said that the information
asked by Gandhi was not maintained.
It also
pointed out to section 7(9) of the RTI Act which allows the ministry to not
divulge information if doing so would disproportionately divert the resources
of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation
of the record in question.
Gandhi termed
the MEA’s reply as “very disturbing” and added that the government either
wanted to hide something or was abdicating its responsibilities.
“This (reply)
indicates that the disclosure would reveal something which the government wants
to hide. Or the government has completely abdicated its responsibilities and
does not monitor the records,” Gandhi told PTI.
Interestingly,
in October 2015, city-based RTI activist Manoranjan Roy had filed a similar
query with the MEA.
In Roy’s
case, the ministry’s CPIO Jagpal Singh had furnished a reply which stated that
73,89,558 and 58,17,515 passports were issued in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
The numbers
saw a spike of 41 per cent in 2014 and 98,80,000 passports were issued, the
reply had stated at the time.
Giving a
break-up of the type of passports issued, the CPIO’s reply had stated that in
2012, a total of 24,311 diplomatic (red colour) and official (grey colour)
passports were issued.
In 2013, the
number of diplomatic passports stood at 25,130 while in 2014 it dipped to
20,208.
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