Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Friday, June 28, 2013.
Political
parties have come together to shut the door on sharing information with
citizens and the government, buoyed by the near-consensus among the political
class, is planning changes to the Right to Information Act. It may take the
amendment route or even promulgate an ordinance to keep political parties out
of the ambit of the information act.
The
amendments to the act will overturn the June 3 order of the Central Information
Commission (CIC) which said six major political parties came within the ambit
of the transparency law.
The
department for personnel and training, which deals with all matters RTI, has
received the first draft of the proposed ordinance from the law ministry.
The
government will pick between the ordinance route or amendment bill only after
the dates of the monsoon session of Parliament are decided. Normally, the
session begins in the third week of July.
Though the
CIC order specifically referred to the Congress, BJP, Communist Party of India,
CPI (Marxist), Nationalist Congress Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, almost all
parties, barring a few, vehemently opposed the ruling, accusing the CIC of
overstepping its jurisdiction.
The
government was critical of the ruling, but hesitated taking steps against the
order. It now seems to have shed its inhibitions.
The changes
proposed, it is learnt, will make it clear that political parties couldn't be
categorised as public authorities, the definition of which has been wrongly
interpreted by the CIC.
An
explanation might be added to the act that political parties are an association
of individuals and the transparency law is not aimed at disturbing the
functioning of the parties.
List of
organisations exempt from providing information under the RTI act is expected
to change as well.
.JPG)
.JPG)
