Cabinet nod to RTI Act amendment
The government on Thursday cleared a proposal of the department of personnel and training (DoPT) to amend the RTI Act to keep political parties out of its purview.
Informing this, sources in the government said, “The Union Cabinet at its meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took the decision to bring an amendment bill to change the RTI Act of 2005.”
The move, which aims to keep the political parties out of the ambit of the Act, has come after the Central Information Commission (CIC) in June held that six national parties — the Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI and BSP — have been substantially funded indirectly by the Central government and were required to appoint public information officers (PIOs) as they have the character of a public authority under the Right to Information Act.
The CIC had given a six-week deadline to all these political parties to appoint PIOs and appellate authorities (AAs) for the purpose. The decision from transparency watchdog evoked sharp reactions from political parties, especially the Congress, the ruling party, which has been credited with bringing in the transparency law.
Of the six political parties, only the CPI has followed the CIC’s order in time and even responded to an RTI query.
The government seeks to change the definition of public authorities mentioned under Section 2 of the RTI Act to keep all recognised political parties out of the jurisdiction of the RTI, sources said. According to the sources, the government plans to bring the amendment bill in Parliament during the Monsoon Session.
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