Date:25/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/25/stories/2004122505861100.htm

National

Information Bill `flawed'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 24. Expressing disappointment over the Right to Information (RTI) Bill introduced in Parliament yesterday, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has accused the UPA Government of going back on its assurances in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) by bringing such a "weak and flawed'' Bill.

Pledging to continue its fight for getting a strong and effective RTI Act that is applicable to all levels across the country, some of the NCPRI members have sought the intervention of the UPA chairperson and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to ensure that the Government corrects "anomalies'' in the Bill.

"We would also request that the process of amending and finalising the Bill is done publicly and transparently. It is only fitting that a right to information law is formulated in a manner that is in keeping with the spirit of the proposed law,'' the NCPRI members, Aruna Roy, N.C. Saxena, Jean Dreze and A.K. Shiva Kumar, said in their letter to Ms. Gandhi.

They pointed out that the new RTI Bill "appears to be intended to be restricted to only to the Central Government and the Union Territories.'' At one stroke, it has taken away the access given by the earlier Act to information with State Governments, district authorities and local bodies. This denied the very information that people actually needed to hold public authorities accountable, they said.

Penalty clause

The letter said the new Bill formulated had also changed the National Advisory Council's recommendations on penalties, rendering them ineffective. The penalty clause was perhaps one of the most critical provisions for implementation of the RTI law.

In a statement, it recalled that soon after the UPA Government took over, the NCPRI had had sent to the Advisory Council an exhaustive list of recommended amendments to the Freedom of Information Act 2002. The NAC accepted most of the recommendations and forwarded them to the Government in August. Ms. Gandhi had at that time stressed the four fundamental principles of an effective RTI Act: minimum exclusions, deterrent penalties, independent appeal mechanisms, and wide and easy accessibility to the public. It regretted that the Government had not been able to come out with an RTI Act that was "progressive, participatory and meaningful.''