DISCLOSURES: Punjab to suo motu disclose information of tours of ministers/officials

Chandigarh, November 5, 2012: In a major step forward in the direction of administration reforms to make the working of the government more transparent, the Punjab Government has decided to suo-motu disclose information of the official tours of Ministers/Officials through various means of communication.

The government has directed all the Financial Commissioners and Department Heads to disclose such kind of information on its own and under Right to Information (RTI), ACT pertaining to the official tours undertaken by Ministers and other officials of the Ministries/Departments concerned.

Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson of Administrative Reforms Department said that all the Financial Commissioners and Department Heads have been instructed to strictly comply with the provisions of section 4 of the RTI ACT, 2005.

He said that it has been advised that public authorities should proactively disclose the details of foreign and domestic officials’ tours undertaken by minister(s) and officials of the rank of joint secretary to the Government of India and above through different communication means.

He said that the information to be disclosed could contain nature of the official tour, places visited, the period, number of people included in the official delegation and total cost of such travel undertaken.

The spokesperson further said that these instructions would not apply to security and intelligence organizations and CVOs of public authorities under the second schedule of RTI Act, 2005.