House panel wants parties outside RTI's ambit

Former chairperson of Thermax Ltd Anu Aga, on Tuesday, struck a lone, dissenting note as a 29-member parliamentary standing committee supported the move to keep political parties outside the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Aga, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, stated in her dissent note to the committee that she considered "political parties to be public authorities because they got substantive financial funding from the government of India."

A ruling by the Central Information Commission (CIC) in June this year had directed major political parties, including the Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPI-M to submit details of their accounts. Political parties across the spectrum (with the exception of the BJD) had opposed the order. The UPA subsequently moved a Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2013 to reverse the CIC ruling.