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PMO fails to trace records of Vajpayee’s I-Day speech

New Delhi: A month after the Central Information Commission’s direction to trace records on the drafting of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Independence Day speech in 2002, the Prime Minister’s Office has expressed its inability to locate them. However, the CIC has closed the case.

The CIC, in its December 17 order last year, directed the PMO to make a “renewed effort” to trace the records, terming its plea of non-availability “most unusual.”

The order followed a right to information (RTI) plea of R.L. Kain, seeking details on drafting of Mr. Vajpayee’s Independence Day speech in which he announced the extension of job reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the next 10 years.

“The records related to the information sought could not be traced ...,” PMO’s former Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) Kamal Dayani said in his reply of January 10.

The PMO, however, produced before the Commission a report of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), detailing the inputs provided to it for preparing the speech. The DoPT is the administrative Ministry which deals with matters relating to reservation, it said.

The applicant demanded an apology from the PMO for an “alleged misleading statement” by Mr. Vajpayee on the extension of reservation to SCs and STs, which did not find favour with the CIC.

“Mr. Kain’s comments regarding the method of drafting the speech and the interpretation given to the information on which it was prepared is not for us to adjudicate upon,” Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said. — PTI

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