Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu has vehemently denied allegations by the Opposition that the government had tampered with the amendments dealing with word limits and fees to be charged from the public for getting information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“There is no change even in a comma or a full stop in the proposed amendment to the RTI rules relating to word limit and fee from the ones proposed by the Congress in 2012,” Mr. Naidu said on Wednesday.
The Centre had proposed new rules under Section 27 of the RTI Act, 2005 to modify it. The Congress alleged that the government was changing the RTI norms by bringing in a word limit for applications and higher charges to make seeking information expensive.
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“Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Rules notified by the UPA government and those proposed now relate to word limit and fee to be paid and are the same, word by word. There is no change even in a comma or full stop mark,” Mr. Naidu said. The Centre had also invited opinions from the people over the proposed rules till April 15.
“I demand an apology from the Congress for its blatant disinformation campaign” he said.