RTI on CM's foreign tours: Govt gives press releases

CHANDIGARH: An RTI applicant is up in arms against the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), saying that the government-run body had handed him a bunch of press notes in the name of detailed information regarding chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar's tours abroad for attracting investments to and generating employment in the state.

Even the press notes, RTI activist P P

Kapoor

has claimed, have been supplied after a delay of nine months and only after

Haryana State Information Commission

asked HSIIDC to do so in a September 28 order. The information panel had expressed dissatisfaction over the manner the RTI application was handled.

According to Kapoor, the state public relations department issued the press notes on the behalf of HSIIDC, and though they contained information regarding foreign investments and employment generated through the CM's visits, they lacked “concrete details“. “The press notes have already appeared in newspapers. It seems that the authorities don't have con crete information regarding foreign investment and employment as a result of chief minister's foreign tours,“ he said.

The commission has stated that the applicant can make legal use of the press notes and it will be considered information provided by the HSIIDC, but Kapoor's not happy . “I have been fighting for eight months, but I have just received press notes issued by the public relations department for the me dia. I wanted specific information regarding time-limit of investment and employment,“ Kapoor told TOI. Kapoor had filed the RTI application on January 25, seeking information regarding the expenditure on CM's foreign tours, MOUs signed with companies, and the total output. When Kapoor did not receive information, he had approached the commission seeking directions to the HSIIDC.

During a hearing, the commission had observed that “the public authority seems to diffident in passing on the information relating to what was a successful trip undertaken by the chief minister of Haryana“. “It is an expected part of state administration that information regarding economic growth and potential economic growth is widely publicized by the agencies that are engaged in promoting economic growth in the state, like HSIIDC.

US TOUR WAS TO ATTRACT Rs 10K CR

To attract prospective investors to invest in the state, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had led a high level delegation to visit USA and

Canada

for ten days in 2015.Haryana had signed MoUs with five leading companies including Google, American multinational technology company CISCO, United Technologies, Applied Materials and Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology during the visit. Then, Khattar had claimed that the state would receive a huge investment of Rs 10,000 crore and employment opportunities for 40,000 persons would be generated as a result of various meetings and agreements signed between Haryana and leading companies of USA and Canada.