Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Oct 13: Jharkhand Human Rights Conference (JHRC) today held a meeting at its office near the Howrah Bridge on Kalimati Road in which it demanded amendment to the changes made in the Right To Information Act of 2005 by the Modi government. JHRC was observing RTI day today.
The chief guest and JHRC central committee president Manoj Mishra observed on the occasion that it was after a long and sustained agitation that the country had attained RTI and that no one had the right to bend the Act as per whims and caprices. He said that every Indian had the right to keep a tag on the activities and decisions of the government elected by the people. �But the Narendra Modi government has, in its efforts to suppress the voice of the nation, has amended the RTI Act in a way so that it has the right to appoint and dismiss information commissioners at will. Earlier, as per the Act, only a high level government committee was endowed with this authority. Any proposal to dismiss an official lay at the discretion of the President of the country.�
Mishra attributed the current stance of the government as the cause of fear for the information commissioners as the government could, at any point of time, dismiss them from service. He demanded that the government immediately amended the RTI Act as other wise it would lose its sharpness.
Special guest SL Das said that RTI activists who have put their lives to the sword by being whistle blowers have not been honoured but at least the government could provide them with security which has not been done. This he said was a matter of concern and regret.
All JHRC executives were asked to send a joint representation to the Centre on this count. Those present in the meeting were Guru Singh, Salavat Mahto, Jagarnath Mahanty, Abhijit Chanda, Rishi Gupta, Durgesh Sharma, Vinay Khatri and others.
