Don't exclude parties from RTI: Maha Govt staff federation

Expressing displeasure over the RTI amendment bill aiming to exclude political parties from the ambit of the transparency law, the Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers' Federation today said parties should not be excluded from the RTI ambit.
"The demand by political parties to exclude them from the RTI Act is not in consonance with any criterion of honesty," the federation said.
"If parties which handle governance at Central and state level seek such exemption, then they don't have any moral right to seek implementation of RTI for others," chief advisor of the federation G D Kulthe said.
The decision to oppose exclusion of political parties from the RTI ambit was taken at a meeting of the federation executive, at Nashik yesterday, Kulthe said.

Describing RTI Act as a progressive legislation, Kulthe said, "in a democracy, people are the owners and such a legislation was necessary. Due to specific provisions of the Act, people are now getting desired information."
At a time when the RTI Act is being effectively implemented in the country, it is not appropriate that political parties should want to be excluded from its ambit, he said.