Amendment to take life out of RTI Act: CIC

The basic objective of the Act, he pointed out, is to prevent and put a stop to corruption.

OP Kejriwal, member, Central Information Commissioner on Thursday night said the Union Cabinet's decision to exclude officials' notings on government files from the purview of the Right to Information Act will take "life out of the law".

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"Information minus the file notings amount to taking the life out of the RTI Act," Kejriwal said in an interview to a private news channel.

"There were hundreds, literally hundreds, who got their ration cards, electricity connections only by filing an application where they asked what was the daily progress of the applications and who were the officers dealing with their applications.

"Now if the file notings are closed, the entire process is stalled," he said.

Kejriwal said, "Once you try to save the names of officials, you try to hide the way the file has moved. What remains in the Act?"

The basic objective of the Act, he pointed out, is to prevent and put a stop to corruption.

"We earnestly hope that the government sees to it that the Act remains its basic strength," he said.