The
Hindu: Colombo: Friday, 04 December 2015.
The Sri
Lankan Cabinet has approved a draft bill on the right to information.
Seven months
ago when the United National Party was running a coalition government that did
not have majority in Parliament, the proposed law was cleared but it was not
taken to its logical conclusion and Parliament was dissolved in late June. It
was originally included in the 100 days’ programme of the government that
assumed office in January this year following the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa
in the presidential election.
Describing
the proposed legislation as the “most progressive” in the region, Karunarathna
Paranawithana, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils,
told The Hindu that this was very much similar to India’s Right to Information
Act. It would guarantee the provision of information “at every level of public
sphere”.
The scope for
limitation was “very narrow”. An information commission would be constituted
and every public authority would have an information officer. Members of the
commission would be appointed through the Constitutional Council so that the
body would not get “politicised”.
Of
national importance
The public
authority would include government departments, state enterprises and those
institutions getting the government’s support. The draft bill would be sent to
provincial councils for endorsement, he said, expressing the hope that all the
councils would clear the legislation, as the bill was a “matter of national
importance.”
Jayampathy
Wickramaratne, Member of Parliament and a constitutional expert, said there
were “extensive discussions” prior to the preparation of the legislation. The
Law Commission, in which he had served, had perused RTI laws of various
countries.
The
legislation would guarantee information “at every level of public sphere”
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