Rajya Sabha passes RTI Amendment Bill despite objections by Opposition

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 as the main Opposition Congress staged walkout from the House in protest against the law.

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, takes away the stature of information commissioners from equivalent of election commissioners, with their salaries and service conditions to be specified by the government.

The main Opposition Congress said that it was not an amendment bill but elimination of the RTI Act and demanded that the bill be sent to a Select Committee for further scrutiny.

However, the demand was rejected and the Congress staged walkout from the House in protest against the bill. Rajya Sabha rejected the motion to refer RTI Amendment Bill to Select Committee by 117 vote against 75 in favour of motion.

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This after high drama in the House over what opposition charged was "intimidation" by the treasury benches to get the motion for sending the amendment to the RTI Act to the Select Committee rejected.

CM Ramesh, who recently quit TDP to join BJP, was seen getting vote slips signed by members and was confronted by an angry opposition parties led by Congress.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh asked Ramesh to go back to his seat as Congress members Viplov Thakur and others tried to snatch the vote slips from hands of Ramesh. The House then plunged into a turmoil as Opposition members rushed into the Well shouting slogans against such strong arm tactics.

(With PTI inputs)