Deccan Herald: Kolkata: Sunday, August 04, 2013.
The Trinamool Congress today opposed the government move
to exempt political parties from the Right to Information Act saying they
should embrace RTI themselves instead of recommending it for others.
"Let us embrace RTI ourselves and not just recommend
it for others," Trinamool Congress MP and Chief Whip of the party in the
Rajya Sabha, Derek O’ Brien, told PTI here.
"We certainly want political parties to come under
the RTI to the degree that is practicable," he said.
"The parties need to be transparent about their
accounts and sources of funding and share these on multiple platforms, besides
submitting them to the Election Commission," he said.
"The same financial transparency must be true for public
and civil society organisations such as NGOs," he said.
The union cabinet on August one gave its nod to amend the
Right to Information Act to keep political parties out of the ambit of
transparency law.
The move followed the Central Information Commission
holding that six national parties -- Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP
were substantially funded indirectly by the central government and were
required to appoint public information officers as they have the character of a
public authority under the RTI Act.