Government plans to amend RTI Act
18 Jul 2018
The Government is considering a proposal to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005.
A notice of intention has been given to introduce “The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018” in the Rajya Sabha for passage during the current session of Parliament.
The purport of the proposed amendments is to provide an enabling provision under the RTI Act to frame rules regarding salaries, allowances and conditions of service for chief information commissioners and information commissioners and state information commissioners.
Currently, there are no such provisions available under the RTI Act.
Consultations with department of expenditure, department of legal affairs and legislative department have been undertaken while preparing / formulating the RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2018,
Minister of state (independent charge) Dr Jitendra Singh state in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
According to commentators, since the RTI Act has been in existence since 2013, there is no need for an amendment as the existing procedure for the remunerations to the CIC and ICs can continue in the future.
They say the remunerations can be in line with other statutory offices as in the case of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners.