The government is Monday likely to introduce in the Lok Sabha a bill to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep political parties out of its ambit, informed sources said.
\nThe issue has been in the limelight after a June 3 Central Information Commission (CIC) order stated that six national political parties would be brought under the RTI Act as they were public authorities, receiving significant funding from the government.<\/p>\n
The government will have no difficulty in getting the bill passed as most parties are against the CIC order, the sources said.<\/p>\n
The union cabinet approved the amendments Aug 2.<\/p>\n
Defending the amendments, Law Minister Kapil Sibal had then said no political party could function if the CIC order was implemented.<\/p>\n
“This (order) will strike at the root of the political system. People will seek all sorts of details from political parties including their process of consultation and decision-making. Nowhere in the world does this happen,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>“The political parties are unanimous against the CIC order. Parties will not be able to function if this is allowed,” he added.<\/p>\n The law minister gave a long list of points to indicate that political parties “did not function under a veil of secrecy” and were accountable.<\/p>\n “We get elected by the people. We have to reveal whatever donations we receive to the Election Commission. It is not as if donations to parties are unaccounted for,” said Sibal.<\/p>\n Donations received by political parties beyond Rs.20,000 have to be declared to the income tax department, the minister pointed out.<\/p>\n “This can also be made public. It is not as if the political parties operate under a veil of secrecy,” he said. The government is Monday likely to introduce in the Lok Sabha a bill to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep political parties out of its ambit, informed sources said. The issue has been in the limelight after a June 3 Central Information Commission (CIC) order stated that six national political parties would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[25616,2762,227,47776,47765,261,47744,47774,47775,23371],"class_list":["post-29658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-law-news","tag-bill-to-amend-rti-act-likely-in-parliament-monday","tag-central-information-commission","tag-cic","tag-national-news","tag-news","tag-right-to-information","tag-rti","tag-todays-news","tag-todays-top-news","tag-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n“We give an account of assets and liabilities to the Election Commission and also give an account of our expenses, there is transparency. Political parties are not companies or trusts. It’s a voluntary association of persons,” he said.
\n(Source: IANS )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"