No proposal to amend RTI Act: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government is not considering making changes in the Right to Information Act, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

"Privacy of individual is adequately protected under the RTI Act, 2005 and there is no proposal to amend the Act with respect to that," Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy said in a written reply.

He said the Central Information Commission (CIC) does not maintain any data with regard to total number of RTI queries rejected in the last five years which were not in public interest.

Replying to another question, the Minister said the government has received requests from various quarters including the people's representatives to bring private banks, corporates, NGOs and public-private partnership (PPP) projects within the ambit of the transparency law.

"Requests have been received from various quarters and RTI activists for bringing private banks, private corporations, PPP project, media, education institutions, etc. under the purview of the RTI Act," Narayanasamy said.

The RTI law is applicable to public authorities as defined under Section 2 (h) of the Act, which include bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by government and non-government organisations directly or indirectly.

"Further, as per Section 2 (f) of the Act, information relating to any private body which can be accessed by public authority under any other law for the time being in force, is already within the purview of the RTI Act, 2005," he said.