‘Modi’s social media presence costs nothing’

PMO replies to Sisodia’s RTI query

THE SOCIAL media presence of the Prime Minister’s Office had not incurred any cost on maintenance, stated an RTI reply to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s query.

The official mobile application — PMO India — did not cost the exchequer anything as it was designed by students in a contest conducted by Mygov.in who were given a prize, the reply said.

Sisodia had filed the RTI application seeking information on year-wise expenses on every social media platform since Narendra Modi took charge as Prime Minister.

His office said it had not received the reply yet.

In the reply, the PMO stated that no social media campaign was run on Facebook/ Twitter/youtube/ Google/ Gmail by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The following social media presence of the Prime Minister’s Office is maintained by the PMO: Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmoindia — @pmoindia, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pmoindia/, You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ Pmofficeindia.theofficialmobile App of the Prime Minister's Office is “PMO India” and is available on Google Playstore. The Official Website of PMO is www.pmindia.gov.in. The above properties disseminate the latest news from Government, speeches & views of Hon’ble Prime Minister and updates from his visits," said the reply.

Sisodia’s RTI application was made 10 days after the CBI registered a preliminary inquiry against him and others for alleged irregularities in the AAP government's social media campaign called “Talk to AK”.

The Delhi government denied there were any irregularities.

Sisodia also sought details on expense bills and documents related to contracts awarded for social media campaigns such as Make in India, the Narendra Modi app, Start-up India and Digital India. He also asked for information on the bidding/tender procedure adopted for advertisements made with regard to social media campaigns on Facebook, Tiwtter, Youtube, Google, Gmail or any other platform on the Internet.

The RTI reply asked him to approach the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Prem Nath Pandey Narendra Modi arrives at Parliament on Friday.