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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'RTI Bill Shrouded in Secrecy, How Will it Enhance Transparency?' Ask Former CICs -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

'RTI Bill Shrouded in Secrecy, How Will it Enhance Transparency?' Ask Former CICs -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

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published Published on Jul 26, 2019   modified Modified on Jul 26, 2019
-TheWire.in

Former commissioners urged citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact people's right to know.

New Delhi:
A number of former information commissioners came forward on Wednesday to criticise the attempts by the Narendra Modi government to rush the RTI Amendment Bill, 2019, through the parliament without following a proper consultation process. They also cautioned that, if passed, the amendment would weaken the transparency law – rated the second-best in the world – by diminishing the stature of the information commissioners who perform the important role of directing the bureaucracy to reveal the information sought by citizens.

The former information commissioners aired their views a day after the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP enjoys a complete majority, and on a day when the party was forced to rethink its introduction in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was not moved in the Upper House in the wake of Biju Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samiti – which together have 13 members – deciding to oppose it. The NDA has 116 members in the Rajya Sabha, still five short of a majority.

In a categorical appeal, the former commissioners urged citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact their right to know.

Bill pushed in an opaque manner

At the conference organised by RTI activists, Anjali Bhardwaj of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information said 15 political parties have thus far opposed the Bill through which the Centre seeks to control the salaries and tenures of the information commissioners in both the central and state information commissions.

She accused the Centre of pushing the amendment in an opaque manner. “There is no information in the public domain about the amendments.”

Bhardwaj said, “People file RTI applications to seek information about all sorts of issues ranging from rations to foreign travels of PMO to big-ticket corruption.” The amendments, she claimed, “were a clear attempt to undermine the autonomy of the commissions.”

She said while the minister stated that the government is not going to downgrade the salaries or tenures, “there is nothing in law for preventing them from doing so”.

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TheWire.in, 25 July, 2019, https://thewire.in/rights/rti-amendment-bill-information-commission


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