Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office is lagging behind in maintaining records as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has either “not received” or is still “processing” bills of chartered flights for 17 of the 27 foreign visits Mr Modi made since May 2014. This has been revealed by the accounts department of the PMO in response to an RTI query.
Ever since taking charge, Mr Modi has visited 44 countries in his 27 foreign visits. Of these, he has visited the USA four times, in September-October 2014, September 2015, April 2016 and June 2016. He has also visited Bhutan, Nepal, France, China, Russia, Japan, Afghanistan, Singapore and Uzbekistan.
Mr Modi’s first foreign visit as PM was to Bhutan in 2014, and the last as of now to Japan in November 2016. However, according to the RTI reply, the accounts department said it is yet to receive bills of expenditure on chartered flights for nine foreign visits that were made by Mr Modi between 2015 and 2016. Whereas, for eight foreign visits undertaken by the Prime Minister, the PMO said the bills are under process.
According to the data shared by the PMO, a total of Rs 77.91 crore was spent in 2014 as expenditure on chartered flights that were used for travelling for five foreign visits to countries like Brazil, Japan and Bhutan. However, the PMO did not share the data for costs incurred by using Indian Air Force’s Boeing Business Jet for visits to countries such as Singapore, Bangladesh and Iran in 2015 and 2016.
Mansoor Darvesh, the RTI applicant who had sought the information from the PMO, said, “I had sought information that was about the total expenditure incurred during the Prime Minister’s foreign visits, but reply was given only on chartered flights, which clearly indicates lack of transparency. In a way, the highest office of the country is avoiding sharing the details. Also, I had sought the information in September 2016 but was given the information in the first week of December 2016 - three months after it was sought.”
Meanwhile, a detailed query sent to the PMO regarding the issue, did not yield any reply till the time of going to press.
