RE: [IAC#RG] RTI Act (Amendment) Bill 2013

Right time to press for this when elections are around the corner.Rahul said
that the ordinance on convicted politicians was nonsense with the elections
facing him like a giant. Now we must ensure that we get the support of at
least one political party other than AAM ADMI PARTY we can surely break the
consensus now existing !! Let us get busy. Now or never . Ask Anna to give
statements . I wonder why he has become so quiet now.

-----Original Message-----
From: indiaresists-request@lists.riseup.net
[mailto:indiaresists-request@lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of DR MC GEORGE
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 12:56 PM
To: indiaresists@lists.riseup.net
Subject: Re: [IAC#RG] RTI Act (Amendment) Bill 2013

Hello friends
Thanks and congratulations for your adament fight for public cause
of social relevance. In the instant case we - INFAM - has the firm opinion
that political parties are 'public institutions' eligible to be brought
under the scrutiny of the RTI Act. They choose legislatures from whom the
very executive makes its origin and the entire power structure is centred
around political parties. They issue directions to legislatures and have got
authority to give 'whip' which has to be obeyed strictly as otherwise they
will lose their status as legislatures. Having such super power status to
form, lead and run the executive authority under whose control and hegmony
everything related to administration happens they should not be left from
under the purview of RTI Act. If the president's/prime minister's office is
included with in the ambit of RTI how can anybody think of excluding the
'creator' of all these institutions and having such vast controlling powers
over them (impeachment in the case of president.) get exclusion.
Please be good enough to share the format of the
memmoranda/sugestions to us also for guidance and form part of the
initiatives. Thanks again and best wishes.
Dr.M.C.GEORGE,ADVOCATE,INFAM(IndianFarmersMovement)National Trustee.
N.B. INFAM is an organisation of farmers especially small and marginal ones
and strives for the empowerment and overall development of farm sector
village communities.

--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 27/9/13, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [IAC#RG] RTI Act (Amendment) Bill 2013
To: sahoo.ak@sansad.nic.in, "Shantaram Naik" <shantaramgoa@gmail.com>,
rs-cpers@sansad.nic.in, "indiaresists" <indiaresists@lists.riseup.net>,
"ncpri" <ncpri@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, 27 September, 2013, 11:28 AM

To:
Joint Secretary (PPG)

Rajya Sabha

27-Sep-2013



BY
EMAIL

Dear Sir(s)

We thank you for the very prompt action taken on our email representation
dt. 26.09.2013 to upload the Press Release and Last Date for filing (Oct 6
2013) for the subject Bill to the Rajya Sabha's official website.


We are now circulating the uploaded attachment to our national membership
for their comments which we expect to file expeditiously.

With best
wishes.


( Er. Sarbajit Roy
)

National Convenor : India Against Corruption, jan andolan


National Convenor : National Campaign for Political Reform in India

www.indiaagainstcorruption.net.in


www.ncpri.org

Mailing address:

2nd
floor, B-59 Defence Colony

New Delhi 110024

Tel : 011-24334262





On Thu, Sep 26, 2013
at 2:02 PM, Sarbajit Roy <sroy.mb@gmail.com>
wrote:

To:
Joint Secretary (PPG)


Rajya Sabha

26-Sep-2013



BY
EMAIL

Sir

This refers our telecon today.



I am given to understand that the subject Bill is referred to your
Departmental Committee for further consideration.

I am further given to understand that a public notice inviting comments
from affected persons was published on 21 Sept 2013 in some newspapers, but
I could not access the same as newspapers have become very expensive
nowadays for ordinary citizens, and also thanks to the UPA Govt.
(under directions of  Hon'ble Chairperson UPA) the citizens like
undersigned since 2005 have been used to getting such relevant information
about Govt. free of cost under the Right to Information over the Internet
suo-moto.



It seems, however, that this important
Amendment Bill's public notice has not been uploaded to website and the
last date for responding is also not specified in Rajya Sabha website.
Ordinarily I would be the last person to attribute any ulterior motives for
this oversight where the aam aadmi is being excluded from Parliamentary
consultative processes by non-disclosure by the very same authority which
passed this beneficial legislation, but seeing as how this amendment is
directly for the benefit of members of the Houses, I am constrained to
formally protest this curious oversight.



Accordingly, I request you to kindly put it up to the Honble Committee to
extend the date for submitting comments for at least 15 days after it the
public notice is uploaded to the website.



In any case, in the interim, I wish to submit on behalf of the National
Campaign for Political Reform in India (NCPRI) and the India Against
Corruption andolan, both movements of which I happen to be the present
National Convenor of, as follows:-



1) That political parties are presently not public authorities as defined
in RTI Act 2005. That the operative judgment on which the CIC (Central
Information
Commission) order of 03-June-2013 is based ie.
"Veeresh Malik versus Indian Olympic
Association" was in the case of the co-convenor of the above 2 movements,
and has been comprehensively misinterpreted by the CIC.



2) That the CIC decision dt. 03-June-2013 is a mischievous and legally
unsound decision delivered, for extraneous considerations, by incompetent
persons on the verge of retirement, who were all appointed under an opaque
discretionary process best described as "horse trading".



3) That there is an urgent need to lay down proper qualifications and
transparent selection procedures for appointment of Information
Commissioners of proven merit and integrity, so that such kind of corrupt
decisions do not again emanate from the Information Commissions.



4) That the RTI Act 2005 requires to be urgently amended in a transparent
manner after wide public consultation to sort out many inherent obstacles
and grey areas which are obstructing the citizens from receiving
information. This may include specifically defining therein that political
parties shall be public authority, for purposes of the RTI Act, along with
all private and semi-public bodies performing public activities.



We may be submitting our detailed submissions once the public notice is
available to us for perusal and discussed by our nationwide membership.



Our movements would also like to personally appear before the Hon'ble
Committee and make our presentations in person. We woudl be obliged if you
would kindly place this communication on the record of the Hon'ble
Committee for this Bill.



With best regards

( Er. Sarbajit Roy )

National Convenor : India Against Corruption, jan andolan


National Convenor : National Campaign for Political Reform in India

www.indiaagainstcorruption.net.in


www.ncpri.org

Mailing address:

2nd
floor, B-59 Defence Colony

New Delhi 110024

Tel : 011-24334262






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