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NDA makes RTI act toothless: Manohar 7/30/2019 11:38:03 PM Early Times Report kathua, July 30: Former Minister and President DCC Kathua Dr Manohar Lal Sharma said that the government has given no plausible reason for bringing amendments to the RTI Act. While countering the claim of the government that the RTI Act was drafted hurriedly and therefore, there were anomalies in it, He said The RTI Act, before being passed in 2005, was referred to a standing committee which examined all the provisions at length . Manohar further highlighted the failure of the government to hold any pre-legislative consultation on the RTI (Amendment) Bill and said that the bill should be referred to a select committee to enable public consultation. He said that the RTI Act has been functioning for the last 14 years without any problem and said that the amendment bill was a clear attempt by the government to seeking these powers would most probably lead to a downgrade. He said if the amendments pass and the government has powers to fix the salary and tenure of commissioners through rules, a situation could arise where different commissioners will have different tenures and salaries. He underlined that most of the lakhs of RTI applications filed every year are filed by the common citizens and the marginalized sections of society in a bid to secure their rights and entitlements from the government. In most cases decided by the commission, the respondent is the government and therefore, in order to ensure that commissions can function independently, their autonomy must be protected. He highlighted that the Supreme Court has repeatedly said that the right to information is a fundamental right and that is what empowered the central government to even legislate on the RTI Act, which was even applicable to states. Terming the reasons given by the government for the amendment bill as "illogical logic," He said since the government flagship programme was on safai, the RTI Act was the best tool to ensure swachhata in governance and therefore, should not be weakened.   Share This News with Your Friends on Social Network     Comment on this Story

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