E-Paper
Move to amend RTI Act flayed
THE SOCIAL activists of different social and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) staged a massive demonstration at the district headquarters in Varanasi on Friday to protest the proposed amendment in Right to Information Act. Staging demonstration under the banner of National Alliance of People?s Movement (NAPM), the social activists strongly criticised the Union Government?s move to change the present form of RTI Act.
THE SOCIAL activists of different social and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) staged a massive demonstration at the district headquarters in Varanasi on Friday to protest the proposed amendment in Right to Information Act.
Staging demonstration under the banner of National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM), the social activists strongly criticised the Union Government’s move to change the present form of RTI Act. The activists were also raising slogans like ‘Sonia Gandhi Chuppi Todo’, ‘Pradhan Mantri Murdabad’ and ‘RTI Se Ched Chad Karna Band Karo, Band Karo’.
The artists of Prerna Kala Manch, a social and cultural organisation, staged a ‘nukkad natak’, depicting the importance of RTI Act in checking corruption.
UP Co-ordinator of NAPM Nand Lal Master said that the proposed amendment in the present form of RTI Act was a conspiracy of the Union Government to make the RTI Act ineffective in the country.
He added that ‘file noting’ was the main soul of the RTI Act but the Union Government was trying to remove it from the Act.
“It is first time in history when such type of effective act is pressed into action to solve the problem but the Union Government is trying to weaken the RTI Act,” he said.
The Union government was trying to escape from the accountability, which was imbedded in the RTI Act by making amendment in the present form of RTI Act, he added.
He said that the Act has brought transparency in the official works and also checked corruption to some extent. “Therefore the Centre should drop the idea of putting proposed RTI amendment in Parliament,” Nand Lal said.
Anjani Kumar Singh of Right to Information Awareness Campaign said that Centre has buckled down under the pressure of officers lobby, who were scared from the accountability towards common masses and trying to weaken the RTI Act.
Other prominent social activists including Ajay Patel, Rajkumari Gandhi, Valabhacharya Pandey, Rekha etc., also criticised the Union Government’s move for removing the provision of ‘file noting’ from the RTI Act.
