The Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA), a State-level network of RTI activists in its core committee meeting, welcomed a recent order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) in which the commission has held that political parties are ‘public authorities’ under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act and therefore have to comply with the provisions of the Act.
“We feel that this will go a long way in ensuring transparency and accountability in the functioning of political parties. Inclusion of political parties under the RTI Act will ensure that parties are accountable to the people of the country,” said National Working Committee member Pradip Pradhan.
“We hope that the political establishment will not, in any way, amend the RTI Act and weaken the provisions of this legislation which empowers people to exercise their fundamental right to information. The network has also appealed to the SIC to take immediate step to bring regional political party Biju Janata Dal to the ambit of the RTI Act and direct to the president of the BJD to designate the PIO and First Appellate Authority in order to provide the information directly to the people,” he added.
The members present in the meeting were National Working Committee member Pradip Pradhan, NCPRI, RTI activists Dillip Das, Tapan Padhi, Jayant Das, Arun Swain, Bikram Swain, Kunja Bihari Patra and Somanath Patnaik.