In India, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Prime Minister's Office to give a list of people who go with him on the government expenditure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the foreign travel. PMO has repeatedly refused to give the list of such people by citing security reasons. However, now Chief Information Commissioner RK Mathur has asked to submit a list of people who have accompanied him on the official visit of the Prime Minister between 2014-2017 on the filing application under Right to Information Act (RTI). He has rejected the government's objections.

Neeraj Sharma filed an application in July last year under the RTI Act and sought the list of such people but he was not given the list. Neeraj had sought the information of CEO, owner, partner and other officials of private companies going with PM Modi on government expenditure. He also sought information about the modes of selection of people who were part of the delegation going with PM.

Neeraj had filed an application in July 2017 under RTI Act seeking information. The Prime Minister's Office replied on September 1, 2017. It was stated, "Information about the visits of the country and abroad of the PM is available on the PMO's website. Information about the delegation members who accompany them can not be given due to security reasons. Under RTI Act, 2005, there is no provision to provide such information."

The PMO had not said anything on the modalities of selection of members. Unhappy with the attitude of the Prime Minister's Office, Neeraj Sharma applied for the second time on September 29, 2017. In this, he was accused by deliberately delaying the information provided by the PMO.

He had said that if the PMO does not have such information then he should not have kept the RTI application pending. Also, Neeraj had told CIC that there was no information available about it on the website too. Chief Information Commissioner RK Mathur has accepted the request of Neeraj Sharma and ordered the PMO to provide the information.

Angered by the attitude of the PMO, Neeraj Sharma said that the government of Dr. Manmohan Singh was more transparent than the Modi government.

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