R K puram resident Shib Kumar has exactly two days to finish the challenging task of finding out what the Ministry of External Affairs spends on towels, tube lights, fans and soaps, among others.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has permitted this Right to Information applicant to scrutinise approximately 1,200 files — each 350 pages strong — located across 15 to 20 offices of the Ministry around the Capital, in this regard.

It all started on May 9 this year, when Kumar sought information on the purchase of “towels, tube lights, fans, stationary and plastic items” by the Ministry.

He asked the foreign ministry to compile the data in a specific format and send it across to him.

The ministry objected to this, saying such an exercise would result in a “disproportionate” diversion of its resources.

Kumar, however, was in no mood to give up and went in for an appeal with the ministry itself, which again informed him that “the Ministry of External Affairs is a very large establishment spread over many offices in Delhi, and that the information sought involves a large number of items purchased by the Ministry.”

The Ministry further informed him that it was in touch with the National Informatics Centre to prepare an “user-friendly software” to list and update purchases so that future applications like that of Kumar’s can be dealt with easily.

In August 2009, Kumar went on to appeal the CIC, expressing his dissatisfaction.

Hearing the matter, Information Commissioner Annapurna Dixit agreed with the Ministry that the information sought for was indeed mammoth and spread over “six registers and approximately 1200 files, each having 350 pages relating to information from 15 to 20 Divisions of the Ministry”.

... contd.