The Department of Personnel and Training Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday assured RTI activists of initiating a public debate before going ahead with amendments to the Right to Information Act.
Allaying widespread fears among the public, the minister at a late evening meeting with a delegation of RTI activists said the amendments would not be used to emasculate the transparency law which has since its inception in 2005 given citizens across the country a liberal peek into government functioning.
Though Chavan obviously did not deny the department’s intentions to go ahead with the amendments, he added that as of now no Bill had formally been drafted on the proposed changes in the Act.
The minister said that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) would shortly bring out a “Position Paper” on the proposed amendments, which would be posted on the department’s official website.
“The minister gave us assurance that no action will be taken to amend the Act without first consulting the public,” said Shekhar Singh, one of the members of the delegation. “He (Chavan) said the public can log in and be free to post their suggestions on the amendments and this will be duly considered by the DoPT.”
The delegation included prominent social activist Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan and Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra.