Prime Minister’s Office claimed that bills worth Rs 119 crore pending towards Air India, generated for some foreign visits of Narendra Modi, have been cleared.
RTI applicant Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra said that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on January 30 uploaded on its website the details of bills worth about Rs 119.70 crore cleared for eight trips, which were shown pending or under process since last year, The Indian Express reported.
“I sincerely hope that all the public authorities concerned i.e. PMO, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Air India will institute suitable norms and guidelines to facilitate expeditious clearance of chartered flights bills as the issue is directly concerned with the ‘Tax-Payers’ money,” Batra was quoted by media as saying.
The PMO has claimed on its website that bills for trips -Japan, Laos, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya and Uzbekistan – have not been received yet.
Earlier, the chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur had refused to disclose the file related to the travel expenses on the Prime Minister’s visits abroad.
According to PMO website, Narendra Modi has already undertaken 27 foreign visits since May 2014.
