Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi
Amid high drama and allegation of “intimidation” by the Opposition, the Rajya Sabha today passed a controversial Bill to amend the RTI Act after negating an Opposition-sponsored motion to send it to a House committee for greater scrutiny.
With this, Parliament has approved the amendment, which empowers the Union Government to fix tenure and service conditions, including salary and perks of information commissioners, as the Lok Sabha has already given its nod.
The Opposition and RTI activists have been up in arms against the changes terming these an attempt to de-value the institution of RTI. The motion for sending the Bill to a select committee was negated by 117 votes against it and 75 members voting in its favour.
As the motion was put to vote and the process was being conducted through paper ballot, CM Ramesh, who recently quit TDP to join the BJP, was seen getting vote slips signed by members and was confronted by angry Opposition parties led by the Congress.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh was also heard asking Ramesh to go back to his seat as Congress members Viplov Thakur and others tried to snatch the vote slips from hands of the BJP member. This led to a complete turmoil in the House with members from the Opposition benches rushing to the Well, raising slogans against such tactics.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the House has witnessed how “303 seats are won”, an apparent reference to the BJP winning absolute majority in the recent Lok Sabha poll. But members of the ruling BJP countered the contention by shouting back while being on their feet.
Alleging that members were “intimidated” to vote in favour of the government, Azad led the Opposition walkout.
