Outrage as RTI report excuses parties

Hyderabad: The Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report on the RTI (Amendment) Bill, that is now public, has concluded that political parties should indeed be kept out of the purview of the RTI Act.

It is now being alleged that the Committee’s consultations, on the inclusion of political parties into the purview of RTI, overlooked public opinion.

In protest, an online petition has been kick-started, to collect over 16,000 signatures, which will then be sent to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who has supported the decision to include political parties into the ambit of the RTI.

“The RTI (Amendment) Bill that sought to keep political parties out of the ambit of the RTI Act was introduced in a very hasty manner during the Monsoon session of Parliament in August 2013.

Following protests from the public, the government was forced to send the Bill to the Parliamentary Standing committee for further deliberation and public consultation. Even then, we see no action,” said Subhash Agarwal, member of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information.

He added: “There are many bodies not covered under the RTI Act but are declared public-authorities by the Information Commission and are even endorsed by High Courts as public-authorities.

On January 4, a tweetathon will be held for a similar cause. From 7 am to 8.30 pm, people can tweet at #saveRTI and follow @saveRTI to register protests against the move.