The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has termed the amendments made by the ruling Congress to reduce the scope of Right to Information (RTI) Act as killing of pro-people law and robbery of the people's rights. Strongly opposing these amendments, AAP MLA and Kisan Wing Punjab president Kultar Singh Sandhwan sought clarification from Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and asked Navjot Singh Sidhu, “Whether depriving the people of their rights was Punjab's Congress model.”Kultar Singh Sandhwan was addressing the media with party’s spokesperson and RTI activists advocate Dinesh Chadha and Neel Garg on the issue here on Wednesday. "With the enactment of the Right to Information Act, the people of the country have become stronger and they have come to know about the black and white activities of the political leaders along with the government officials; fearing which, the Congress government has made the people of Punjab and the country, weak and helpless by making clumsy amendments to the Right to Information Act,” he added.
Sandhwan alleged the Congress government was implementing such anti-people decisions to cover up the misdeeds of its corrupt ministers and officials, because with the implementation of the new amendments to the RTI Act, in the future; records related to personal information, qualifications, medical records, treatment, medicines, list of hospitals and family members will not be disclosed. In addition, the provision of confidential job reports, performance reports and answer sheets for job examinations has also been banned, he said.The AAP leader further said the Congress government, which had not recruited a single candidate in the last four-and-a-half-years, had started the recruitment process for various posts in view of the forthcoming elections; which raises doubt that the Congress government had taken a fatal decision to amend the RTI Act with the intention of scamming recruitment of Patwaris, police and teachers along with other jobs.Advocate Dinesh Chadha alleged, “The Congress government is trying to hide the truth of its performance from the people of Punjab in the name of personal information.” He said the media representatives should also come forward and fight for the protection of the RTI Act against the clumsy attempts to cover up the truth. The AAP leaders demanded the ruling Congress government to immediately withdraw the fatal amendments to the RTI Act, failing which the Aam Aadmi Party would launch a statewide struggle.