The way Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy outright supported a controversial bill brought in by Narendra Modi government at the Centre came as a shock to many legal experts.
The MPs belonging to Telangana Rashtra Samithi and YSR Congress party supported the RTI (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Rajya Sabha, thereby ensuring that it is passed with thumping majority.
Former central information commissioner Dr Madabushi Sridhar Acharyulu wondered whether KCR, Jagan or their party MPs had ever read the Bill and understood the implications of the changes that were made.
“Please try to take assistance of your legal teams and find how your support to this bill will kill your sovereign powers at least now, which you should have done before supporting it,” he said.
He said the Bill kills independence of not only the Central Information Commissioners but also the Information Commissioners in your states also.
The TRS and YSRC MPs have laid at the feet of the Modi government the liberty, autonomy and sovereignty of the people for no reason, which is totally against the norms and principles of federalism.
He reminded that the Bill would take away the powers of the states to appoint an information Commissioner and would disable them from determining the term and status of the state Information Commissioners.
“What is that you have achieved by this support to this unconstitutional, anti-democratic and anti-federal Bill?” Acharyulu asked.
He alleged that this unconstitutional Bill destroys the independence of Information Commissioners and encroach upon the sovereign rights of states, which you did not mind sacrificing.
