Rahul Gandhi: Government's proposed changes in RTI Act will make it useless

The amendments, if cleared by Parliament, will give the government powers to fix tenures, salaries as well as other terms and conditions of service of information commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC)

The government's move to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act will render the law "useless", Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said on Friday and advocated that "every Indian" should oppose the proposed changes, which seek government control over the salaries and terms of information commissioners. The BJP wants to hide the truth, Gandhi alleged.

The amendments, if cleared by Parliament, will give the government powers to fix tenures, salaries as well as other terms and conditions of service of information commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC). "Every Indian deserves to know the truth and the BJP wants to hide the truth. The BJP believes the truth must be hidden from the people and they must not question people in power. The changes proposed to the RTI will make it a useless Act," Gandhi said on Twitter.

He added that the changes being suggested "must be opposed by every Indian". Gandhi tagged a letter by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, which has challenged the amendments on the ground that they undermine the independence of information commissions.

Under the RTI Act, information commissioners have a fixed tenure of five years or till they attain the age of 65, whichever is earlier. The chief information commissioner gets a salary equivalent to the chief election commissioner, while information commissioners at the CIC are at par with election commissioners. The government said it is considering a proposal to amend the RTI Act, 2005, to frame rules on salaries and services of chief information commissioner and information commissioners.

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