New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Secretariat has
refused to provide expenditure details incurred by MPs on
their tours and journeys saying it would "disproportionately
divert the resources" of the House.
In response to an RTI application, the Secretariat said
culling out such details is not feasible under provisions of
the RTI Act.
However, it allowed inspection of Travelling Allowance
and Dearness Allowance register by the RTI applicants.
The Secretariat has also decided not to proactively
disclose assets and liabilities of its MPs on its website as
it is not "feasible" but will provide the information to RTI
applicants, it said in a reply under transparency law.
"The information sought by the application with regard to
all expenditure incurred on perks and travelling allowances of
each Member of Parliament is not readily available...
Furnishing details of expenditure incurred on each Member of
Parliament would disproportionately divert the resources of
the Secretariat," the House said in a reply.
The expenditure on travelling and other allowances
incurred on a Member of Parliament varies from MP to MP as it
is based on the number of journeys performed, Committee
meetings and other Parliamentary duties attended by him/her,
the reply to activist S C Agrawal said.
On the issue of proactively disclosing assets and
liabilities of members, the House said, "It was found not
feasible to computerise all the documents of declarations of
assets and liabilities of all members of Lok Sabha, therefore
it has been decided not to upload this information on the
website of Lok Sabha."
Section four of the RTI Act mandates proactive disclosure
of information about the public authority.
PTI
