Activists circulate official bill's draft to amend RTI

A group of activists on Thursday circulated a draft of an official bill to amend the information right law.

A group of activists on Thursday circulated a draft of an official bill to amend the information right law which purportedly renders Information Commissions as mere advisory bodies.

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"The proposed amendments to the RTI law do not just stop at blocking access to file notings but also recommend taking away the independence of the Information Commissions," Shekhar Singh of the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information told a press conference in New Delhi.

The press conference was also addressed by RTI activists Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan in which copies of the purported draft of the official bill were released.

The proposed amendments also keep the decision-making process out of the reach of public scrutiny.

"Information regarding any proposal would be available only after a decision is taken. The amendments also propose to remove access to material on the basis of which decisions were taken by the Council of Ministers," Bhushan said.

If the amendments come into force the common man will have access only to Cabinet decisions, which are anyway in the public domain and not give access to the Cabinet notes, he said.