Fact Check: How true are some of the Government’s statements on RTI? - Part 3

Claim: The UPA government made a clumsy RTI act and was also done in haste.

Fact: The RTI bill was introduced in the Parliament in December 2004 and was referred to a standing committee which then submitted its report in March 2005. Thus, the claim that the act was done in haste is FALSE.

Was the RTI Act passed in haste?

Another claim made by the minister is that  the UPA government made a clumsy RTI act and  was also done in haste. He went onto say that the NDA government is trying to modify the same.

The RTI bill was introduced by the UPA-1 government on 23 December, 2004 in the parliament. It was then sent to the Department Related Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances , Law & Justice. The bill was referred to the standing committee on 31 December, 2004 and the committee submitted its report on 21 March, 2005. In other words, the standing committee took more than 80 days to deliberate on the bill and provide its feedback. Incidentally, the current President of India, Ramnath Kovind who was then a member of the Rajya Sabha, was also a member of this committee. The committee had also recommended that it is necessary to elevate the status of information commissioners to that of the Election Commission of India. Hence to say that the act was done in haste is false.