Jaipur, Aug. 16: Deep Chand Sharma has got back the Rs 1 lakh he had sent to the Prime Minister's Office as a donation. But he isn't happy.

In fact, the 63-year-old who claims to be a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whole-timer is "angry": the government hadn't been able to provide him with a list of the country's poorest 100.

The reason it was returning the money and also because the Prime Minister's Relief Fund did not accept "conditional donations".

"When all governments say they want to reach the last poorest man in the society and vow to root out poverty and hunger, I decided to ask for the list of 100 poorest people in the country early last year. But I never got a reply," Sharma, who taught Sanskrit in a government school before taking voluntary retirement, told The Telegraph today.

Sharma, a resident of Rajasthan's Sikar district, was speaking a day after Narendra Modi's Red Fort address. But the call for " surajya" in the Prime Minister's I-Day speech had clearly left him unimpressed.

When he didn't get the reply, Sharma decided to donate Rs 1 lakh to the Prime Minister's Office, so that it could be given to the poorest man.

"After a month, I received a receipt and letter from the PMO, saying my helping hand was highly appreciated. Also, that the money was being donated to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, a reserve fund pool to help the needy. But this made me angry and I filed an RTI query to know why was the money not being given to the poorest of the society and being transferred to the relief fund."

His RTI application did not elicit any response even after a month. He then moved the Central Information Commission, while also seeking a penalty on the delay in providing the information sought within the 30-day deadline.

"That is when a call came from the PMO. It was P.K. Bali, undersecretary (funds), who rang me up. While lauding my effort, he expressed helplessness in finding the poorest of the poor," Sharma said. "I told him I would like to know the identity of the person to whom the money would be given as I would like to help the person further with whatever little I have. It is like adopting a person. When MPs and MLAs have been asked to adopt villages, why can't common people be urged to adopt poor individuals?"

When the government said it would be difficult to identify the poorest person among the poor, Sharma wanted his money back.

The government returned the money on March 18, 2016, saying rules clearly say that "conditional contributions, where the donor specifically mentions that the amount is meant for a particular purpose, is not accepted in the fund".

Sharma's case came up for hearing before the CIC last week. Chief information commissioner R.K. Mathur closed the case and rejected the penalty, saying the PMO had responded to him in detail.

Sharma, a BJP supporter who earns around Rs 26,000 a month, said he had initially asked his village sarpanch to provide him a list of poor people in the area. The sarpanch couldn't. It was then that he had thought of approaching the Prime Minister.

Sharma said the Prime Minister had asked for advice from the public for his Independence Day speech, but when people want to reach out to the poor in their own way, there is nobody among the higher-ups who cares.

According to World Bank figures released in October last year, India accounted for the largest number of poor people in any country in 2012. But its poverty rate was the lowest among countries with a large number of poor people.