Times of India: Visakhapatnam: Wednesday, September 25,
2013.
"It's
unfortunate that the RTI Amendment Bill permits submission to be made only in
English and Hindi, which means that over 41% of the population of the country,
which knows neither Hindi nor English, will be deprived of their Right to
Information," said M Shyam Prasad, member, district RTI coordination
committee on Tuesday. According to him, many members of the Parliamentary
Committee are not from Hindi or English speaking areas, yet none of the MPs has
demanded that opportunities be created for people of their states to petition
in their own mother tongue. As per Article 350 of the Constitution, citizens of
the country can make a petition in any of the 22 listed official languages.
The
Parliamentary Standing Committee on personnel, public grievances, law and
justice is examining the RTI Amendment Bill mainly due to mounting public
pressure through various forums, he said.
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