10
RTI Act: The Right to Information Act, implemented during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh government, has continuously weakened since the BJP came to power at the Center in 2014.
RTI Act: Congress has made a big allegation against the Modi government. Congress said that the RTI law has weakened under the BJP rule. Gujarat Congress on Sunday said the Right to Information Act, implemented during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh government, has been continuously weakened since the BJP came to power at the Center in 2014, affecting transparency and the democratic fabric of the country. In a statement issued on the 20th anniversary of the RTI Act, Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda said the main objective of the law is to empower citizens by providing them access to information available with public authorities. The Right to Information Act came into full force on October 12, 2005. He said that this Act had helped the poor to get rights like ration, pension, arrears of salary and scholarship. Said that the Right to Information Act has continuously weakened since 2014, which has affected the transparency and democratic fabric of the country. The 2019 amendments to the Act reduced the independence of the Information Commission and increased the influence of the executive.
Amendment against the basic objective of RTI
Chavda said that before the amendments, the tenure of the commissioners was fixed at five years and their conditions of service were preserved. However, now the Central Government has been given the power to decide the tenure and conditions of service, due to which its independence has been affected. Moreover, the amendment of Section 8 (1) (j) of the RTI Act through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act to expand the scope of personal information means that information in public interest can also be hidden, which is against the basic objective of RTI. He claimed that this paves the way for denial of voter lists, expenditure accounts and other information related to public interest. Directly impacts the process of public monitoring, the process through which irregularities like misuse of MP funds, registration of false beneficiaries in MNREGA and suspicious political funding are exposed.
The post of Chief Commissioner is vacant in Gujarat
The Congress leader said that the Central Information Commission is currently going through its weakest phase. Out of 11, only two commissioners are working, while the post of Chief Commissioner is also vacant. Around 23,000 cases are pending in the Central Information Commission alone till November 2024. Many activists have been murdered and are facing threats, harassment and violence, due to which people are now afraid to use RTI. He said that the Whistleblower Protection Act has not been implemented yet. The purpose of this law was to provide protection to people who expose corruption or irregularities, but due to the indifferent attitude of the government, this protection has remained only in words. Chavda said that this bill was introduced by the UPA government and was passed in both houses of the Parliament, but this law was not implemented after the Modi government came to power in 2014.
Also read: Internal discord in Congress: P Chidambaram in trouble after giving statement on Operation Blue Star, top leadership angry
