Sachin Tendulkar's donation to relief fund is private information: PMO

Hyderabad: The Prime Minister’s Office refuses to reveal cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s contribution to the PM’s National Relief Fund under the Right To Information Act, contending that revealing details would be an invasion of privacy.
Tendulkar himself had announced that he had contributed the salary he received as a Rajya Sabha member to the relief fund.

In his six years as an MP, Tendulkar drew a total salary of Rs 90.97 lakh, including monthly allowances. In April this year, he announced that he would donate his entire salary to the PM National Relief Fund. The PMO had issued a letter of acknowledgement which stated: “The Prime Minister acknow-ledges this thoughtful gesture and conveys his gratitude. These contributions will be of imm-ense help in providing assistance to the persons in distress.”

However, when an RTI query sought to know from the PMO the total amount received from Tendulkar donating his salary to the PMNRF and a copy of the acknowledgement issued by the PMO regarding the donation, the reply from the PMO was: ‘Information sought is exempted under section 8(i) (j) of RTI act, 2005.’

City-based RTI activist D Rakesh Reddy, who filed this RTI, said, “The information on Sachin’s donation was made public by the cricketer himself and his salary as an ex-MP is already in the public domain. It is irrational for the PMO to assume that information that is already in the public domain would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of an individual. There is no reason for the PMO to hide such information.”