What does the Right to Information Act and Information Commissioners mean for Indians?
This act that was passed in 2005 allows any citizen of India to request information from a "public authority", could be a body of Government also, which means every public authority has to make a record of everything they do so it can be given to people easily, within 30 days if and when they request for it.
So if I had to crunch all that down to one single word, it'd be: transparency. That's what the bill is worth.
Now many people including the opposition and former Information Commissioners and RTI activists are opposed to these, some on social media are also calling it “Regret to Information Act” or “Death to Democracy”. What is the controversy about? Tune in to The Big Story podcast for a deep dive into the amendments.
Click here (https://www.thequint.com/news/india/election-commission-hides-info-under-rti-on-pm-modi-mcc-violation-complain) and here (https://www.thequint.com/news/india/election-2019-vvpat-count-ec-misleading-rti-reply) and here (https://www.thequint.com/voices/women/government-on-me-too-movement-rti-reveals-govt-dissolved-panel-stonewalls-queries) for The Quint's stories on major institutional oversights exposed through RTIs.