Killing it Softly


The process of accessing information should be transparent, timely and trouble-free. Delayed information does not help solve problems but compounds them. Timely information can halt wrong decisions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a two-day national convention to mark 10 years of RTI in October last year Between June 2014 and August 2015, Noida-based Lokesh Batra, retired Navy Commodore and a veteran of RTI applications, having filed over 600 of them so far, filed a series of over 30 applications with the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of External Affairs and various Indian missions abroad, enquiring about the expenses incurred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign trips since he assumed office in May 2014. The response to a large majority of the applications was a terse: "The bills are still being processed and have not been collated yet."

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