JALANDHAR: The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to give information under RTI Act about decisions taken as part of the demonetisation plan. PMO has cited a provision of RTI Act claiming exemption from providing information.Nawanshahr based RTI activist Parvinder Singh Kitna had sought information about the timings of crucial decisions and sent an application to the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of PMO on November 16. On December 2, the PMO forwarded the application to the ministry of home affairs “for action as appropriate”. On December 16, PMO Under Secretary-cum-CPIO Parveen Kumar replied to Kitna’s application and cited provision 8(i)(a) of the RTI Act to refuse the information sought.Kitna’s queries were: on which date was the decision taken to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and 1000; on which date were copies of the letter issued to the authorities/departments concerned and RBI for starting the process in this regard; when was the process of demonetisation of high currency notes started in PMO; at which level/branch was this process initiated.The other points on which the information was sought included: when was the final decision taken on demonetising the currency and copy of orders issued by the PMO on the subject; was the Union cabinet taken into confidence; if yes, provide a copy of the “minister” (minutes) of the cabinet meeting; copies of the legal and financial opinion on the subject given by the respective offices.The RTI application also posed questions about quantum of black money as it asked: how much of black money has been received by the government as on date of providing the required information.Kitna said PMO should make public all the facts related to demonetisation as refusal to give information was leading to apprehensions. He said he would file an appeal with the appellate authority, as provided by the RTI Act, against this refusal to share information.Meanwhile, Punjab and Haryana high court advocate H C Arora said that information should be made public as the RTI Act also provided “that the decisions of council of ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete, or over”. He said that once the demonetisation policy had been implemented, there was no harm in making public the information pertaining to its decisions.