New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday described the amendment to the RTI Act, 2005 as "RTI-destroying" and urged Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to "pause, review and repeal" the latest change.

The Rajya Sabha MP had written to the Union Minister on March 23, alleging that "Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act virtually destroys the RTI Act, 2005" and demanded its repeal.

In his letter to Vaishnaw, Ramesh said, "Section 3 of the DPDP Act, 2023 cited in your letter as protecting disclosures under the RTI, Act, 2005, is wholly irrelevant since Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 itself has been amended drastically".

"Section 3 of the DPDP Act will now only protect disclosures as per the amended RTI Act, which exempts all personal information from being accessible," he said.

The Senior Congress leader said, "The deletion of proviso in Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2015 which recognises the citizens' right to information as being at par with that of legislators is completely unwarranted. Infact, that proviso is applicable not just to the personal information exemption, but all exemptions in Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, 2005".

"I would therefore strongly again urge you to pause, review and repeal the amendment made to the RTI Act, 2005. As you would have seen this issue has also exercised a broad spectrum of people from civil society, academics and political parties," Ramesh said in his letter.

It may be mentioned that Ashwini Vaishnaw in his reply to Jairam Ramesh on April 10 had said that the DPDP Act, 2023 "is in harmony with privacy principles as enshrined in the Puttaswamy judgment and principles of transparency in public life as enacted in the RTI Act".

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