Should the RTI Act, 2005 be amended?
20 Jul, 2018
Ever since its inception, the government in power has tried to change the RTI Act, 2005 which has been repulsed by the civil society. Recently, the government has tried to bring a bill to amend the RTI Act, 2005 affecting the pay of the Information Commissioners. The working of the Information Commission leaves much to be desired and with the amendments, it would be weakend further. An online petition has been moved by Ms Anjali Bhardwaj on change.org the content of which is repoduced below -
The proposed amendments will dilute the RTI Act. They are being introduced in Parliament by the government without holding any public consultations on the issue.
Please sign our petition to stop these amendments.
The amendment bill allows the central government to decide the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners.
This would fundamentally compromise the autonomy of information commissions.
With the increasing number of attacks on RTI activists and whistleblowers, the government should focus on better disclosure of information and offering protection to people who expose corruption and wrongdoing.
Sign our petition to make the government drop the proposal to amend the RTI Act and immediately operationalize the Whistleblowers Protection Act.
It is for the readers to take a free and inforamed decision.
Sanjay Sharma