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/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157/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/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157/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('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 37040,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
		&#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) 37040,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 37040,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 37040
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157.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 | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the..."/>
    <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>Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri</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 Hindu<br /><br /><em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br /></em><br />The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br /><br />It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br /><br /><em>Why amend it?<br /></em><br />In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br /><br />The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br /><br />The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br /><br />This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br /><br />Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br /><br />The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true" title="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

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

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

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

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

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

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 37040,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
		&#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) 37040,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 37040,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 37040
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157.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 | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the..."/>
    <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>Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri</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 Hindu<br /><br /><em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br /></em><br />The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br /><br />It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br /><br /><em>Why amend it?<br /></em><br />In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br /><br />The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br /><br />The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br /><br />This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br /><br />Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br /><br />The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true" title="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

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

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

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

                ), $first);

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

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-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">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f6e1f03a309-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$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) 37040,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
		&#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) 37040,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 37040,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&#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;muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157&#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) 4685157,
	&#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) {}
	],
	&#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) 37040
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp;amp; Amrita Johri&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Hindu&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &amp;mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &amp;mdash; and seek answers from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why amend it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &amp;mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot; title=&quot;https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157.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 | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the..."/>
    <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>Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri</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 Hindu<br /><br /><em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br /></em><br />The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br /><br />It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br /><br /><em>Why amend it?<br /></em><br />In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br /><br />The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br /><br />The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br /><br />This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br /><br />Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br /><br />The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true" title="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

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

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

<head>

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

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

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

		'id' => (int) 37040,
		'title' => 'Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj & Amrita Johri',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Hindu<br />
<br />
<em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br />
</em><br />
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br />
<br />
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br />
<br />
<em>Why amend it?<br />
</em><br />
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br />
<br />
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br />
<br />
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br />
<br />
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br />
<br />
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br />
<br />
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157',
		'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) 4685157,
		'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) 37040,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri',
	'metaKeywords' => 'RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability',
	'metaDesc' => '
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-The Hindu<br /><br /><em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br /></em><br />The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br /><br />It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br /><br /><em>Why amend it?<br /></em><br />In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br /><br />The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br /><br />The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br /><br />This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br /><br />Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br /><br />The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true" title="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 37040,
	'title' => 'Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-The Hindu<br />
<br />
<em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br />
</em><br />
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br />
<br />
It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br />
<br />
<em>Why amend it?<br />
</em><br />
In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br />
<br />
The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br />
<br />
The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br />
<br />
This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br />
<br />
Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br />
<br />
The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br />
<br />
Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Hindu, 26 July, 2018, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'muzzling-information-anjali-bhardwaj-amrita-johri-4685157',
	'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) 4685157,
	'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) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 37040
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj &amp; Amrita Johri'
$metaKeywords = 'RTI Act,RTI Activists,Right to Information,Right to Information (RTI),Right to Information Act,transparency,Accountability'
$metaDesc = '
-The Hindu

The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-The Hindu<br /><br /><em>The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked<br /></em><br />The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country &mdash; from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries &mdash; and seek answers from them.<br /><br />It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it.<br /><br /><em>Why amend it?<br /></em><br />In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions &mdash; the final adjudicators under the law.<br /><br />The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament.<br /><br />The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies.<br /><br />This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law.<br /><br />Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments.<br /><br />The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act.<br /><br />Please <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true" title="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/muzzling-information/article24513976.ece?homepage=true">click here</a> to read more. <br /></div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

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

Muzzling information -Anjali Bhardwaj & Amrita Johri

-The Hindu The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of the law has not been limited to accessing information about delivery of basic services, however. The RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices in the country — from the educational qualifications of the Prime Minister and assets of public servants to human rights violations and false claims made by government functionaries — and seek answers from them. It is not surprising, therefore, that the RTI law has frequently faced a backlash from powerful vested interests. The latest attack on the legislation is the proposal of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government to amend it. Why amend it? In complete contravention of the pre-legislative consultation policy, the government has drafted a bill to amend the RTI Act. The proposed amendment bill, which was brought in surreptitiously, seeks to destroy the independence of Information Commissions — the final adjudicators under the law. The RTI Act fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the retirement age of 65 years. Further, Sections 13 and 15 of the law state that the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of the Central Information Commission shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Those of the Central Information Commissioners and State Chief Commissioners will be on par with Election Commissioners. The Chief and other Election Commissioners are paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by Parliament. The amendments seek to empower the Central government to decide the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all Information Commissioners in the country. The rationale provided for undertaking this step is that treating Information Commissioners on par with functionaries of the Election Commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while Information Commissions are statutory bodies. This contention is inherently flawed. The principle of statutorily securing tenure, and protecting the terms of service by equating it to functionaries of constitutional bodies, is routinely adopted to ensure independent functioning of statutory oversight institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high status conferred on Commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously, without fear or favour, and direct even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law. Empowering the Central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners is a clear attempt to undermine their independence and to effectively make Commissions function like regular government departments. The BJP came to power on the plank of anti-corruption. The last four years, however, have witnessed repeated attempts to undermine the RTI Act. Please click here to read more.