RAIPUR: The Prime Minister’s Office did not have any information on requests PM Narendra Modi has received ahead of the government’s decision to rename the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award after legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, revealed an RTI reply.
In response to the query filed under the Right to Information by a Chhattisgarh-based RTI applicant Uchit Sharma, the PMO said there is no such information available on record. Not satisfied with the response, the applicant has moved the Central Information Commission (CIC).
“The documents related to the matter in question were looked into, inspected. The details sought are beyond the purview of the definition of the ‘information’ under the RTI Act. The public authority is bound to provide only that information which is available and accessible on record. So, no information can be provided to you on the given issue,” stated the PMO’s written response to Sharma after he filed the first appeal.
The Director and first appellate authority in PMO, Amrik Singh, also rejected the activist’s assertion to penalize the public information officer. “Such a plea is not accepted at the level of first appeal. And it needs to be produced before the CIC,” Singh added.
Sharma objected to the manner in which the hearing of the first appeal was conducted, calling it “unfair”. The applicant contended that the decision given by the authority, designated for the first appeal, was “one-sided” as neither was he informed nor invited to attend the hearing along with the central public information officer of PMO before arriving at the conclusion.
“My simple question was not properly addressed. I just wish to know after the PM’s tweet on getting many requests from the citizens to rename the highest sports honour Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand,” Sharma said.