Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 39521
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>&#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Mumbai Mirror<br /><br />On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br /><br />Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br /><br />To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br /><br />Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br /><br />Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc" title="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 39521
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>&#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Mumbai Mirror<br /><br />On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br /><br />Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br /><br />To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br /><br />Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br /><br />Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc" title="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ee9b34c42-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 39521,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4687653,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 39521
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &amp;#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&amp;#039; -Gautam Bhatia&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Mumbai Mirror&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &amp;ndash; if enacted into law &amp;ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&amp;rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &amp;ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &amp;ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To understand the context of the amendments &amp;ndash; and why they are so dangerous &amp;ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &amp;ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &amp;ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &amp;ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &amp;ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &amp;ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &amp;ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &amp;ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &amp;ndash; to be independent of the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &amp;ndash; and even killings &amp;ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &amp;ndash; and democratising &amp;ndash; power of this law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot; title=&quot;https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>&#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Mumbai Mirror<br /><br />On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br /><br />Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br /><br />To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br /><br />Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br /><br />Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc" title="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 39521,
		'title' => ''Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected' -Gautam Bhatia',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-Mumbai Mirror<br />
<br />
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br />
<br />
To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br />
<br />
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br />
<br />
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => '039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 4687653,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 39521,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency',
	'metaDesc' => '
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-Mumbai Mirror<br /><br />On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br /><br />Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br /><br />To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br /><br />Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br /><br />Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc" title="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 39521,
	'title' => '&#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-Mumbai Mirror<br />
<br />
On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br />
<br />
To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br />
<br />
Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br />
<br />
Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'Mumbai Mirror, 24 July, 2019, https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => '039amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected039-gautam-bhatia-4687653',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 4687653,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 39521
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | &#039;Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected&#039; -Gautam Bhatia'
$metaKeywords = 'Central Information Commission,SIC,State Information Commission,Right to Information Act,Right to Information,CIC,Amendments to RTI Act,RTI Act,transparency'
$metaDesc = '
-Mumbai Mirror

On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-Mumbai Mirror<br /><br />On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which &ndash; if enacted into law &ndash; will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government&rsquo;s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward.<br /><br />Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government &ndash; after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections &ndash; was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House.<br /><br />To understand the context of the amendments &ndash; and why they are so dangerous &ndash; it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities &ndash; under the aegis of the RTI &ndash; have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act.<br /><br />Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners &ndash; who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI &ndash; would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two &ndash; and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) &ndash; it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners &ndash; tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process &ndash; to be independent of the government.<br /><br />Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks &ndash; and even killings &ndash; of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic &ndash; and democratising &ndash; power of this law.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc" title="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/amendments-to-rti-act-must-be-rejected/amp_articleshow/70354777.cms?__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR0bw2yb1yAcOQaRNKG0ZCBBx9axVxlxgnzVQ-JIe40mwJOEmLfDSvF0nrc">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

'Amendments to RTI Act must be rejected' -Gautam Bhatia

-Mumbai Mirror On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which – if enacted into law – will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government’s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward. Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government – after having been returned to power in the 2019 elections – was to bring back the amendments (without any public consultation), and this time, get them passed through the Lower House. To understand the context of the amendments – and why they are so dangerous – it is important to understand how the nerve centre of the RTI is the office of the Information Commissioner(s). The RTI establishes a Central Information Commission as well State Information Commissions, manned by Information Commissioners. The task of the Information Commissioners is to adjudicate claims where citizens seeking information from public authorities – under the aegis of the RTI – have been denied the same. In a sense, therefore, the Information Commissioners stand between the individual and the government, tasked with ensuring the fair and impartial implementation of the RTI Act. Until now, the Right to Information Act focused on ensuring that the Information Commissioners – who are, as we have seen, the public officials tasked with deciding claims under the RTI – would be independent of the government. The status of the Information Commissioners was similar to that of Election Commissioners. And to ensure independence in decision-making, Information Commissioners also had guaranteed tenure. The reasons for these were simple: the RTI Act was designed to redress the imbalance of power between the citizen and the State, by making the State transparent and accountable to the citizen. For this reason, the body that would have to adjudicate between the two – and especially, in cases where public information officers had denied information (a frequent occurrence) – it would naturally have to be independent of the State. It is the same logic that requires election commissioners – tasked with maintaining the ground rules of the democratic process – to be independent of the government. Despite many problems, this structure has worked effectively. Over the last decade and half, the RTI has become one of the most effective tools to ensure democratic governance, by ensuring accountability from government agencies. Ironically enough, the numerous attacks – and even killings – of RTI activists stand testament to the democratic – and democratising – power of this law. Please click here to read more.