Official transferred after his RTI reply revealing cost of Modi selfie booths at railway stations

January 7, 2024 | 2 min read

The Modi selfie booth themed around Digital India at Nagpur railway station, part of the Central Railway, whose cost was one of those revealed in a reply to an RTI query by a railway official, who was transferred soon after *(Photo: mymahanagar.com)*

On December 29, the chief public relations officer of Central Railway (CR), Shivraj Manaspure was transferred from his position without prior notification of the reason behind the transfer or informing him about his new assignment.

Just a month prior to this unforeseen transfer, Manaspure disclosed the cost of Prime Minister Modi’s 3D selfie booths at railway stations in response to an RTI request from social activist Ajay Bose.

Providing details about the booth expenses, CR’s RTI reply specified that the price of each permanent booth, excluding taxes, at Category A stations is Rs 6.25 lakh and that of each temporary booth at Category C stations is Rs 1.25 lakh. The reply mentioned that all costs were sanctioned by the Central Bureau of Communication.

The Ministry of Railways is now mulling stringent moves to curb the releasing of answers through the Right to Information Act. The discomfort caused by the leak of costs has prompted officials at the ministry to not let any such thing happen in the future.

A notification has been issued on behalf of the Ministry that all RTI answers have to get the assent of the zonal manager before going out to the person who filed the request.