RTI Amendment Bill Passed In Rajya Sabha Amid Protest By Opposition

The bill for amending the RTI Act, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday, amid objections by the Opposition which alleged that it was an attempt to undermine the law .

New Delhi: The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was on Thursday passed by Rajya Sabha after negating an Opposition sponsored motion to send it to a House Committee for greater scrutiny. With 117 members voting against the motion and 75 members voting in favour, the motion stood negated. The bill for amending the RTI Act, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday, amid objections by the Opposition which alleged that it was an attempt to undermine the law and make the transparency panel a "toothless tiger".  Rejecting the opposition's charge that the Bill will weaken the Act, the government said it was fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution. The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to give the government powers to fix salaries, tenures and other terms and conditions of employment of information commissioners. The passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, comes after a high drama in the House over what opposition charged was "intimidation" by the treasury benches to get the motion for sending the amendment to the RTI Act to the Select Committee rejected. C M Ramesh, who recently quit TDP to join BJP, was seen getting vote slips signed by members and was confronted by an angry opposition parties led by Congress. Deputy Chairman Harivansh, asked Ramesh to go back to his seat as Congress members Viplov Thakur and others tried to snatch the vote slips from hands of Ramesh. The House then plunged into a turmoil as Opposition members rushed into the Well shouting slogans against such strong arm tactics. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the House has witnessed how "303 seats are won", an apparent reference to BJP winning absolute majority in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Treasury benches countered this. Azad then led the Opposition walk out saying they are boycotting the proceedings. Result of the division was announced after the walkout. The Motion for sending the amendment to the select committee was put to vote after a division was sought when the pandemonium  broke out. The ensuing vote on the passage of the amendment after the opposition walkout, was carried by voice vote. The Amendment to the Act was vocally criticised by the Congress ahead of the proceeding.  UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said the Centre is hell-bent on subverting the RTI Act which now stands on the "brink of extinction", a day after Lok Sabha passed amendments to the Act amid strong opposition protests.