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The Central Government will according to media reports is likely to reach out to the various opposition parties in order to garner support for the passage of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha, government sources said .
The government may also contact former Congress president Sonia Gandhi also as she is leading the opposition parties, they said. Gandhi had called a meeting on the issue.
Earlier It may be recalled that Sonia Gandhi had slammed the Modi government on the amendment of the RTI Act and said that the government is pushing the historic law towards extinction.
In a statement she said, “It is a matter of utmost concern that the Central Government is hell-bent on completely subverting the historic Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. This law, prepared after wide-spread consultations and passed unanimously by Parliament, now stands on the brink of extinction.”
At a meeting of the Opposition parties, it was decided to demand in Rajya Sabha that seven out of 16 bills including the RTI Amendment Bill be sent to Joint Select Committee.
On Tuesday, the Lok Sabha passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill that allows the Central government to notify the term of office for the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners with the Opposition slamming the measure as diluting the provisions of the legislation.
Congress member Shashi Tharoor had said the Right to Information Act 2005 was one of the most monumental accomplishments of the country’s democratic governance in recent years.
Tharoor said he had warned that the bill was not just an RTI (Amendment) Bill but an RTI (Elimination) Bill.
