PM Modi makes asset information public, not Khattar government

CHANDIGARH: Haryana's BJP government has refused to disclose the property details of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his ministers under the Right to Information (RTI) Act terming it as “personal information“. The government has said no despite the previous Congress government under Bhupinder Singh Hooda giving the details under the Act.

Activist P P Kapoor, who had sought the information from the cabinet branch of the state government in March, approached the state information commission which in turn has issued a notice to the officials.

Urvashi Gulati, a former chief secre tary of Haryana, will now hear the explanations of the officials on July 28. Interestingly, the Haryana government has refused to give the details when the Union cabinet does not mind sharing the same details online. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assets and liabilities are available on the website pmindia.gov.in. In a 2011 order by the then Cabinet secretary K Chan drashekhar, Union minis ters are expected to disclose details of their assets and liabilities by August 31 according to the code of conduct. The government order came after RTI applications demanding transparency in property details of public servants were stonewalled for months by the government, Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

As of now besides the Prime Minister and the council of ministers, bureaucrats in the central government, information commissioners and the chief information commis sioner are expected to make their assets and liabilities public. Kapoor has argued that the ministers are public servants and their property details should be given under RTI.

When the officials denied the details, Kapoor initially approached undersecretary-level officials of the branch. But they said that the information was personal “which stands exempted from disclosure under clause (i) of section 8 (1) of the RTI Act unless it involves a larger public interest as held by the Supreme Court“.

They also quoted a 2013 order of the Punjab and Haryana high court which held that provisions of the RTI Act would not be available to a disgrun tled employee seeking information regarding a public official which is otherwise personal in nature.

However, Kapoor explained that the information was sought in public interest for transparency in administration. “The information which cannot be denied to the Parliament and state legislature can't be denied to the public either,“ Kapoor added.

Giving his comments to the state information commission, superintendent of the cabinet branch Jarnail Singh said, “The appellant has not made a bona fide public interest and not succeeded in establishing that the information sought for is for larger public interest.“