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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RTI amendment: Usurping powers from Legislature and States -M Sridhar Acharyulu

RTI amendment: Usurping powers from Legislature and States -M Sridhar Acharyulu

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published Published on Aug 5, 2019   modified Modified on Aug 5, 2019
-Down to Earth

The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu

Alas! I thought the Narendra Modi government is strong enough after its re-election. But now it is scared of the Right to Information (RTI) and the Chief Information Commission (CIC), as if they are monsters who can harm the power of the powerful rulers.

The Information Commissioner in India, under the RTI Act, is little more than a toothless institution. Though it is on a par with the Central Election Commissioner and judges of the Supreme Court, it is so weak that it cannot enforce its own order.

Though they have independence, most commissioners could not come out of their nurtured culture of secrecy; which indelibly sunk in their DNA for decades while working as civil servants before they shifted to transparency duties as a great favour done by the rulers.

I really do not understand whether the government is scared or are the bureaucratic personalities, who appeared dazed because 60-70 lakh people every year seek information about their functions; whether the government has succumbed to pressure from corrupt babus to finish the RTI Act?

Right to Information is totally limited to seeking a copy of a paper lying in the files of government offices. That is all.

And the CIC can, at the worst, issue a show-cause notice to public information officers (PIO) to impose a penalty of a maximum Rs 25,000. The commission does not even have the power of a Central Administrative Tribunal. It is so weak that it cannot enforce its order of disclosure.

The Government has waged a war, used its think tank, charged its lobbying power, sought help from regional parties, and strategically gave no time to MPs to read and prepare their opposition to the Bill. It pushed the legislation with great rush: Until it appeared on the business scheduled in Parliament, none knew that the Bill would come up.

The three powerful regional parties who defeated the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in recent elections with substantive majority — the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the YSR Congress Party (Andhra Pradesh) and the Biju Janata Dal (Odisha) — initially opposed the Bill in Lok Sabha, but added their strength to the NDA in Rajya Sabha, resulting in its smooth passage.

Please click here to read more.

Down to Earth, 2 August, 2019, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/rti-amendment-usurping-powers-from-legislature-and-states-65955


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