E-Paper
Govt puts RTI amendment on hold
Govt has taken the decision following outcry from NGOs and social activists.
The Right to Information (RTI) Act is not going to be amended, for now.
The proposed move has been put on hold pending discussions on the strong concerns over curtailment of access to file notings.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed that the amendment bill should not be tabled in Parliament’s monsoon session.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had earlier forwarded to Suresh Pachauri, MoS, Personnel and Training, a bunch of petitions opposing the proposed law.
Official sources insist the amendment would improve the original law by opening substantial file notings relating to social and developmental issues, and by empowering information commissions to enforce greater transparency under the law.
RTI activists and NGOs disagree: the proposed changes they say, are restrictive — especially when Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has held that the original law permitted access to file notings.
The amendment, proposed by the cabinet on July 20, had sought to block access to all file notings except those on social and development issues, and to all files where a decision was pending.
The campaign against the amendment was joined by retired bureaucrats like Madhav Godbole, former CJI JS Verma and parties from the left and right.
Social activist Anna Hazare went on fast in Maharashtra; Magsaysay award-winner Sandeep Pandey did the same in Delhi.
RTI campaigner Aruna Roy said the government decision was the people’s victory, but clarified the campaign wasn’t over.
“We will mobilise more people to see reason over the next few months,” she said. The cabinet’s July decision according to her, was an “error of political judgement”.
