RTI activist denied info on PM’s family VVIP status

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 5

RTI activist KK Verma said the Prime Minister Office (PMO), the Home Ministry, the Defence Ministry, the Directorate of Special Protection Group (SPG) and the Cabinet Secretariat passed the buck on one another denying information on the VIP status and privileges of the Prime Minister’s family he had sought under the RTI Act on January 7, 2015.

The RTI documents, he received from the PMO, the Home and Defence Ministries and the Central Cabinet, which are with The Tribune revealed that the central public information officer(CPIO), PMO received Verma’s RTI application on January 13. After 29 days, the CPIO informed Verma through a letter that the office was sending an interim reply and suitable response would be sent to him as soon as any input was received from the units concerned in the office.

The central public information officer, Cabinet Secretariat, Directorate of Public Grievances, Government of India, in his letter on June 29 informed the RTI activist that they were neither the custodians of the RTI information sought by him, nor this information was held by or under the control of this public authority, therefore, cannot be provided by it.

“The directorate is in no way concerned with the subject matter and such RTI applications may not be transferred to the public authority,” the letter stated. On April 22, the CPIO of the PMO office in the office memorandum (RTI/709/2015 PMR) informed Verma that the application has been transferred under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act to the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Defence Secretary, Ministry of Defence and the SPG.

The letter asked Verma to contact the relevant ministries for further information in this regard. Referring to Verma’s query on whether or not the Prime Minister’s spouse and his families members are treated as VIP or VVIP and enjoy SPG status, the public information officer of PP division of the Ministry of Home Affairs in his letter dated June 16, 2015, informed the RTI activist stating that this unit “does not have the list of VVIP category and is not aware of the rule or law under which an individual is formally classified as a VIP or VVIP category”.

Hence the requisite information may be treated as ‘nil’ as far is this unit is concerned, the letter stated. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defence also denied him relevant information on whether or not Prime Minister’s spouse and his parents were invited for August 15 and Republic Day celebration, said Verma.

The public information officer of the Ministry of Defence (Ceremonials) in his letter dated May 11 informed Verma that “no such information is available with this unit. The applicant can make the appeal, if any, under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act to the Deputy Secretary, Ceremonials, South Block,” the latter stated.

Verma, a social media coordinator for the state Congress, said the director, SPG has not replied to his RTI application so far. The PMO has denied him the relevant information as he has sought the status of the spouse of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh as well. “We know spouse of the President of India is country’s first lady, but we do not the status and privileges of spouse of the Prime Minister as all relevant authorities have concealed this information to the people of India,” he added.