Govt of India tabled the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha on Friday. It is listed for debate and passage on Monday i.e 22nd July.
If passed it alters the basic structure of the #RTI Act- a fundamental right available to citizens. #SaveRTI
National Campaign for People’s Right to Information- an umbrella body of transparency activists across India released a statement defining the problems with the Bill.
We summarise the statement in following tweets.
Text of Bill: http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBillTexts/Asintroduced/181_2019_LS_Eng.pdf
The Bill was introduced in secrecy w/o a pre-consultative process- an absolute must for Legislative matters.
It was introduced on Friday 19th July and listed for debate and passing on Monday.
The Bill seeks to amend the #RTI Act which gives Central govt to decide TENURE, SALARIES and other terms and conditions of INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS at the centre and states.
This does 2 things:
1. Alters the BASIC STRUCTURE of the #RTI Act which sets the current tenure at 5 years and perks and allowances on par with the chief election commissioner.
2. Undermines the INDEPENDENCE of INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS- the final adjudicators in RTI claims
Instead, the Govt could do the following to bring in more #Transparency
-Make time bound appointments to the info commissions
-Stop attacks on #RTI users- over 80 killed
-Implement whistleblower Act
-Ensure Proactive Disclosures
-Bring transparency in political funding
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