Centre has weakened RTI Act, say Pratibha, Rajni Patil

State Congress president Pratibha Singh today accused the Central Government of weakening the Right to Information (RTI) Act. She was accompanied by AICC in-charge for Himachal Rajni Patil and AICC spokesperson Kuldeep Rathore at a press conference held here to mark the completion of 20 years of the Act.

Pratibha said “The Congress had given the citizens the gift of the RTI Act, under which any citizen of the country can seek information in a time-bound manner. Unfortunately, the NDA government has been consistently weakening the Act, denying citizens their right.”

Rajni said that the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh had introduced the RTI Act on October 12, 2005. “The Act was followed by several other Acts like MGNREGA-2005, Forest Rights Act-2006, Right to Education Act-2009, Right to Fair Compensation in Land Acquisition Act-2013 and the National Food Security Act-2013. The primary purpose of these Acts was to empower citizens with information and enable them to protect their rights and entitlements. Post-2014, the RTI Act is being continuously weakened, which has hit transparency and the democratic structure of our country,” she added.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep Rathore said that the Central Government had amended the Act time and again, making it ineffective. “The Central Government is not filling the post of Chief Information Commissioner and several other positions in the Commission. Today, the Information Commission has millions of pending applications,” he added.

The Congress leaders vowed that the party would protect and strengthen the law so that every citizen could fearlessly ask questions to the government and get timely and effective answers.