Citizens rally against bid to dilute RTI Act

Times of India: Mumbai: Wednesday, August 07, 2013.

Prominent citizens came together at St Xavier's College on Tuesday to safeguard the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The call to action was a response to political parties' reported attempts to amend the RTI Act to stay out of its ambit.

The meeting saw a turnout of over 200 people. Suggestions included emailing UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, releasing petitions on social media sites and holding a series of protests.

On June 3, the chief information commissioner declared six political parties as public bodies and gave them six weeks to appoint information officers and make voluntary disclosures, a ruling that was widely resisted by most parties.

Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi said every citizen should call MPs and lodge his protest.

Such protests have already spread to 16 states. "The Parliament has a right to frame a law. But once they've made it, to change it for their benefit is completely third-rate and unacceptable," he said. He recalled how the slogan "hamara paise, hamara hisab" was bandied about when the RTI law was being framed and that the government's money was actually the peoples' money and thus every citizen had a right to have information about where it was going.

Citizens also raised concern about the total lack of transparency about what the amendments would involve and said the government ought to make this open to citizens.

Former police commissioner Julio Ribeiro said citizens were entitled to know where parties got their funding from as many problems arose from the use of black money in elections.

"Parties have said that they are not public bodies," he said. "Why don't they go to court and prove it?"