RTI Amendment Bill referred to parliamentary standing panel

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Right to Information Amendment Bill, which aims to keep the political parties out of the RTI ambit, was on Thursday referred to a parliamentary standing committee for further consideration. "The government has decided that there should be more discussion on this Bill. We will bring this Bill in Parliament in the Winter Session," said V Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2013 was introduced on August 12 in the Lok Sabha by Narayanasamy but could not be discussed amid repeated adjournments in Parliament. The Union Cabinet had last month cleared a proposal to amend the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties and negate a Central Information Commission (CIC) order to this effect. The amendment to the RTI bill was necessitated following a June 03 Central Information Commission (CIC) order stating that six national political parties would be brought under the RTI Act as they were public authorities. The CIC also claimed that these parties were receiving significant funding from the government. Had the CIC order been implemented, the political parties would be liable to declare their accounts and other details. The government, however, later said that no political party could function if the CIC order was implemented. Except Biju Janata Dal, most major political parties are in agreement with the amendment.