Sonia slams Modi government over RTI Amendment Bill

July 23, 2019 09:49

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in a statement has hit out at the Modi dispensation after the Lok Sabha on Monday passed Right to Information (Amendment) Bill.

In her statement, the senior Congress leader wrote, "It's clear that the present central government sees the RTI Act as a nuisance and wants to destroy the status and independence of the Central Information Commission which was put on par with the Central Election Commission and Central Vigilance Commission.

On Monday, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed with 218 members voting in its favour and 79 against it.

Congress member Shashi Tharoor said the Right to Information Act 2005 was one of the most monumental accomplishments of the country's democratic governance in recent years.

Tharoor said he had warned that the bill was not just an RTI (Amendment) Bill but an RTI (Elimination) Bill.

He said the purpose of RTI was to make the government uncomfortable. "RTI is inevitably an instrument for keeping a check on the overweening power of the authorities," he said.

The Congress member accused the government of dismantling of architecture empowering the central government to unilaterally decide the tenure, salary, allowances and other terms of service of the Information Commissioners both at the Centre and the States.

The bill allows the Central government to notify the term of office for the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners.

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