CIC - PIO should give forthright response to RTI queries
4 Nov, 2012Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking information regarding the donations made by the Prime Minister (PM) on humanitarian grounds and to various temples and religious places. He also wanted to know about the total number of state guests since the year 2004 and the total cost incurred on them. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some information.
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The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the appellant is in the habit of seeking disparate items of information in single RTI applications quite often on vague issues. The Commission further noted that the appellant has not cared to specify what he means by donation or humanitarian grounds leaving it to the imagination of the PIO. The Commission however stated that the PIO should have been more forthright in his response rather than indirectly saying that the Prime Minister of India is not in the business of going around temples and religious places giving donations out of the state exchequer.
Citation: Mr. Nitish Kumar Tripathi v. Prime Minister’s Office in File No.CIC/SM/A/2012/000296
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2012/CIC/773
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