Deccan Herald: New Delhi:
Sunday, September 29, 2013.
With a
Parliamentary Standing Committee seeking public comments on the amendments to
RTI Act to exclude parties from the ambit of the transparency law, the
government has made public a cabinet note in which it is argued that a “very
liberal” interpretation of the law led to “erroneous” conclusion by the Chief
Information Commission.
This is the
first time that a cabinet note, otherwise deemed secret, has been put on public
domain.
The 79-page
document details the government's reasoning for excluding the parties from the
ambit of the Right To Information Act, the recommendations of the Law Ministry
and an order of the CIC on the need for transparency in parties. The parties
brought under the law, were the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist
Party of India (CPI), CPI-Marxists, Nationalist Congress Party and the Bahujan
Samaj Party.
All the
parties were opposed to the CIC order arguing that they were not public
authorities. Efforts to offset the CIC ruling had triggered a controversy with
activists up in arms against the move, resulting in government taking a hasty
retreat on passing the bill in the recently concluded monsoon session of
Parliament and referring it to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
If the
standing committee concludes its work in two months, the bill may be taken up
for discussion in the winter session of Parliament.
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