Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Prithviraj Chavan, is understood to have assured the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) that no changes would be made in the RTI Act without wider consultations. According to an NCPRI release, the Minister assured their delegation that the government would not take a final decision on the proposed changes in the RTI Act before “consulting the people.”...

The Department of Personnel and Training Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday assured RTI activists of initiating a public debate before going ahead with amendments to the Right to Information Act. Allaying widespread fears among the public, the minister at a late evening meeting with a delegation of RTI activists said the amendments would not be used to emasculate the transparency law which has since its inception in 2005 given citizens...

After strong protest from civil society organisations, the government has admitted that it is considering amending the Right to Information (RTI) Act. It has, however, assured activists that a transparent and consultative process will be adopted before any action is taken, and the amendments will not be persevered with if activist groups are able to convince the government that they are either unnecessary or counterproductive. These assurances notwithstanding, it is...

Kheema Ram, a 40-year-old farmer from Rajasthan who exposed a number of corrupt practices through his more than 350 RTI applications is against any amendments in the Act. Ram, hailing from Rajsamund district, travelled all the way to Delhi along with fellow villagers on Saturday to protest against the proposed amendments in the RTI Act which may take out some categories of information from the Act's ambit. "The discussed amendments...

Several civil society organizations and citizens who believe that a section of government and bureaucracy should not be allowed to dilute the right to information (RTI), staged a daylong protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi today (November 14, 2009) against the attempts to dilute the historical Act. (See the press release below for details) The civil society organizations, led by the National Council for the Peoples’ Right to Information...