RTI amendment bill will end freedom of Information Commissions

Calling the Centre’s decision to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 a “bad move”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said it will end the independence of the Central and states’ Information Commissions.

“The decision to amend the RTI Act is a bad move. It will end the independence of Central and States’ Information Commissions, which will be bad for RTI,” Kejriwal tweeted.

His reaction came after a bill that proposes to give the Centre the power to set the tenure and salaries of state and Central Information Commissioners was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 also aims to remove the disparity between the wages of the Information Commissioners and the Election Commissioners.

On Friday, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, termed the draft law a “threat to the independence of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC)”.

(IANS)