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Air India asked to disclose PM Narendra Modi’s foreign visit bills

The CIC has directed the Air India to disclose complete records related to bills raised for the foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, underlining that since the expenditure is from the public exchequer it cannot be withheld under the “cloak” of commercial confidence and fiduciary capacity.

The CIC’s order comes two years after RTI activist Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra filed an application, seeking information on bills raised during the PM’s international travels. Batra had sought to know dates, durations, places visited and the date-wise copies of bills raised by Air India to the PMO for 2016-17.

In an e-mail, sent to an Air India official on December 26, 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had said, “Records pertaining to PM’s flight have certain information which may have security implications and are, hence, exempted from disclosure under clause (g) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

In an order dated 8 May, the CIC rejected the submission made by Air India’s Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) that the details sought by Batra were exempt under the cloak of commercial confidence and fiduciary relationship with the client concerned, which in this case is another wing of the government.

In his second appeal, Batra had stressed that Air India is a public sector authority working under the control of government, which is performing its statutory function of loaning its aircrafts to other government bodies. Hence, this loaning of its chartered flights to various government departments/agencies cannot be stated to be a matter of commercial confidence.

 

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NPF selects LS by-poll candidate, ruling PDA may choose its own tomorrow

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Kohima: With just two days left to file nominations, opposition Naga People’s Front (NPF) today selected its candidate for the by-poll to the lone Lok Sabha seat of Nagaland, while the ruling People’s Democratic Alliance is likely to choose its consensus nominee tomorrow.

The by-election would be held on May 28 and the last date for filing nomination is May 10.

The NPF’s central executive council decided to field CA Pok Jamir in the election, party sources said.

The ruling People’s Democratic Alliance comprising the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP), the BJP, the Nationalist People s Party and Independents would be deciding on their consensus candidate tomorrow.

NDPP secretary-general Abu Metha told PTI that the PDA leaders will meet tomorrow and decide whether or not to field consensus candidate for the by-poll.

The by-election was necessitated due to the resignation of Neiphiu Rio as the MP who contested and won the state Assembly elections held in February and became the chief minister. His party NDPP joined hands with the BJP to oust the 15-year-old reign of the NPF from power.

Returning Officer for the by-poll, M Patton, said no nomination was filed till today since May 3, the first day of filing nomination papers.

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