Govt to reach out to opposition parties on RTI Amendment Bill, may contact Sonia Gandhi

With an aim to ensure passage of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha, days after it was passed in the lower house of the Parliament, the Central Government is likely to reach out to opposition parties to support the passage of the bill.

New Delhi:The Central Government will reach out to opposition parties to support the passage of Right to Information (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha, government sources said on Wednesday.

The government may contact former Congress president Sonia Gandhi also, as she is leading the opposition parties, they said. Today, she had called a meeting on the issue.

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 (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs), 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.

"The RTI amendment is a deliberate attempt to weaken the framework and to undermine the RTI altogether, rendering it, a toothless tiger," the Congress leader had said.

On its part, the government has denied these allegations saying that it is committed to full transparency and accountability.