Will move court for getting details of Bengal CM’s foreign trip: Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata : The leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday said that he will move to the court to get the details of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's overseas trip in September to scout for investments.

The leader of the opposition has clarified that he will be constrained to move the court on this count having failed to get any response from the state government departments concerned regarding his query in the matter made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Adhikari claimed that on September 21 he had sought essential information regarding the chief minister’s 11-day trip to the UAE and Spain through an application made under Section 6 of the RTI Act, 2005 to the state public information officer; department of industry, commerce & enterprise.

He also said that similar applications were sent to the state public information officers of the department of home, department of information & cultural affairs and department of tourism as well. He also claimed none of the concerned officers responded within the statutory period of 30 days, following which he had sent a reminder to all of them on November 2.

The leader of the opposition also questioned the silence of the officials of the state government departments in the matter. “Why aren't they providing the information regarding the CM's foreign trip? What are they hiding? Who has instructed them to act in such evasive manner and not to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005?” Adhikari questioned.

Finally, he said that if he fails to get any reply in the matter in the next few days he will be approaching an appropriate court in the matter. “I will wait for a few more days for their response and then I will approach an appropriate Court of Law regarding this matter,” he said.