india

Updated: Jul 20, 2019 01:24 IST

A bill which proposes to give the Centre the power to set the tenure and salaries of state and central information commissioners, was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday amid protests by the Opposition that it would weaken the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The vote on introducing the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2019, went in favour of the government, with 224 members voting for and nine against, after some Opposition members led by the Congress staged a walkout from the Lower House.

The bill effectively demotes information commissioners from their current stature, which is equivalent to that of election commissioners, who enjoy fixed five-year tenures.

Introducing the bill, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh said the Narendra Modi government functioned on the dictum of “maximum governance, minimum government.” and added that the bill will strengthen the structure of RTI and make the delivery of the Act easier.

He added that it strengthens the overall RTI structure and described it as an enabling legislation. The Congress’s floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, argued that the Bill was not introduced in line with the rules, and demanded that it be sent for review to a standing committee. When Singh refused, Chowdhury walked out along with Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Danish Ali of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mohammed Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Mohammed Faizal of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and some other members.

The Congress’s Shashi Tharoor said that the bill was a tool to eliminate the RTI.

“It is not an RTI (Amendment) Bill. It is an RTI Elimination Bill. This bill is removing the two greatest armours of institutional independence and on top of that, by controlling the state information commissioners, by taking over the power to determine their salaries, the central government is destroying it,” he said.

Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) said the amendment bill does not have “legislative competence” because a clause in the amendment takes away the powers of the state.

Speaker Om Birla did not agree to demands of members such as Tharoor, Owaisi, and TMC’s Sougata Roy and asked Singh to counter the arguments. “Let us allow the bill to be introduced, and then debate,” he said.

The House opted for a division vote, which went in favour of the government. after Congress members walked out.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 was enacted to put in place a practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities and to promote transparency and accountability.

A former information commissioner criticised the amendments.

“The move by the government to amend the RTI Act is very unfortunate and appears to be the result of wrong and faulty advice. It would have been advisable if this had been transparently placed in public domain for a consultation and views,” said Shailesh Gandhi, according to news agency PTI.

Because of an opaque system of appointing information commissioners, most of them tend to follow the government’s signal, Gandhi was quoted as saying.

“RTI amendment bill introduced in Lok Sabha. Minister claimed bill aimed at strengthening and streamlining RTI Act. Nothing could be further from the truth! The amendment is aimed to ensure pliability of information commissioners towards central government. Need public campaign to #Save,” said RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj.