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/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084/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/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084/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('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 36967,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
		&#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) 36967,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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) 36967,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 36967
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084.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 | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to..."/>
    <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>Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua</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">-The Telegraph<br /><br /><em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br /><br />The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br /><br />As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br /><br />For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br /><br />However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br /><br />This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br /><br />Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf" title="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br /><br />Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br /><br />Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br /><br />The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br /><br />All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br /><br />An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter" title="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br /><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('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 36967,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
		&#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) 36967,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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) 36967,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 36967
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084.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 | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to..."/>
    <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>Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua</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">-The Telegraph<br /><br /><em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br /><br />The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br /><br />As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br /><br />For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br /><br />However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br /><br />This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br /><br />Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf" title="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br /><br />Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br /><br />Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br /><br />The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br /><br />All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br /><br />An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter" title="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br /><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('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ce1154eac-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 36967,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
		&#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) 36967,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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) 36967,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&#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;cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084&#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) 4685084,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 36967
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Telegraph&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;New Delhi: &lt;/em&gt;In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For 17 bills listed under the &amp;quot;E&amp;quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &amp;quot;purport&amp;quot; column says about the draft legislation is &amp;quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government&#039;s pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot; title=&quot;http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf&quot;&gt;public domain for 30 days&lt;/a&gt; for comments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &amp;quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&amp;quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The National Campaign for Peoples&#039; Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &amp;quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot; title=&quot;https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&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/cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084.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 | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to..."/>
    <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>Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua</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">-The Telegraph<br /><br /><em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br /><br />The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br /><br />As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br /><br />For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br /><br />However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br /><br />This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br /><br />Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf" title="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br /><br />Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br /><br />Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br /><br />The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br /><br />All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br /><br />An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter" title="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br /><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) 36967,
		'title' => 'Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Telegraph<br />
<br />
<em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br />
<br />
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br />
<br />
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br />
<br />
For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br />
<br />
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br />
<br />
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br />
<br />
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br />
<br />
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br />
<br />
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br />
<br />
The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br />
<br />
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br />
<br />
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br />
<br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084',
		'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) 4685084,
		'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) 36967,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua',
	'metaKeywords' => 'transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation',
	'metaDesc' => '
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-The Telegraph<br /><br /><em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br /><br />The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br /><br />As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br /><br />For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br /><br />However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br /><br />This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br /><br />Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf" title="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br /><br />Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br /><br />Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br /><br />The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br /><br />All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br /><br />An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter" title="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br /><br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 36967,
	'title' => 'Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Telegraph<br />
<br />
<em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br />
<br />
The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br />
<br />
As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br />
<br />
For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br />
<br />
However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br />
<br />
This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br />
<br />
Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br />
<br />
Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br />
<br />
Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br />
<br />
The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br />
<br />
All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br />
<br />
An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br />
<br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Telegraph, 16 July, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'cloak-on-rti-bill-anita-joshua-4685084',
	'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) 4685084,
	'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) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 36967
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua'
$metaKeywords = 'transparency,Right to Information Act,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information,RTI Activists,RTI Act,Pre-legislative Transparency,pre-legislative consultation'
$metaDesc = '
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.

The bill seeks to amend the Right to...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-The Telegraph<br /><br /><em>New Delhi: </em>In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished.<br /><br />The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.<br /><br />As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18.<br /><br />For 17 bills listed under the &quot;E&quot; category of new bills, some detail or the other of the &quot;purport&quot; has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.<br /><br />However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the &quot;purport&quot; column says about the draft legislation is &quot;To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005&quot;.<br /><br />This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.<br /><br />Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the <a href="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf" title="http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1417684398~~Parliament%20as%20a%20Law%20Making%20Body.pdf">public domain for 30 days</a> for comments.<br /><br />Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.<br /><br />Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. &quot;We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that,&quot; he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.<br /><br />The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.<br /><br />All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture.<br /><br />An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: &quot;You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner.&quot;<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter" title="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/cloak-on-rti-bill-245257#.W0v9B9_9MuE.twitter">click here</a> to read more. <br /><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

Cloak on RTI bill -Anita Joshua

-The Telegraph New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been furnished. The bill seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback. As many as 18 bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon session, scheduled to begin on July 18. For 17 bills listed under the "E" category of new bills, some detail or the other of the "purport" has been provided or there have been consultations with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law. However, in the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the "purport" column says about the draft legislation is "To amend the Right to Information Act, 2005". This has upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled. Officials refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes, although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014, mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the public domain for 30 days for comments. Also, a summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval. Shailesh Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend the Act. "We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that," he tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law. The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns. All parties and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday -- the first day of the monsoon session -- to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the anti-corruption legislative architecture. An online petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000 signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: "You had promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner." Please click here to read more.