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.

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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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