Right to Information (RTI) activist Ajay Dubey, in a letter to the Chief Secretary and the Secretary of the Department of Information and Technology, citing a Central Government order, has demanded that the objective and other details of the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his colleagues' South Africa tour should be made public.
Dubey in his letter said, "I would like to draw your attention to the order of the Department of Personnel Training, Government of India dated September 11, 2012 which says that every public authority should disclose proactively under RTI Act 2005 the details of official travel plans, both domestic and foreign, of the Ministers and officers."
Dubey further said, "Unfortunately the Madhya Pradesh Government has not followed the order till the moment. The State Government has not provided the requisite information even after several reminders of DoPT and also turned a deaf ear towards my pleas over the issue."
He said that the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with his Ministers and officers was leaving for South Africa on official tour but no information about the objective of his tour was available on MP Government's website.
Dubey, also a Member of Transparency International, asked the Chief Secretary to take appropriate action to ensure the implementation of this order in the public
interest.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions' Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, wide its official memorandum no F. No. 1/ 8/2012-IR dated April 3, 2013 advised the public authorities to proactively disclose the details of all foreign and domestic official tours of Minister(s) and officials of the rank of Joint Secretary
to the Government of India and above and Heads of Departments since
January 1, 2012, and to update the disclosure once every quarter starting from July 1, 2012.