New bill on RTI tabled in JS
The government has placed a bill in parliament seeking to enact a law to ensure people's empowerment by allowing them to have access to their right to information.
The bill was tabled yesterday when the much talked about Right to Information Ordinance 2008 ceased to be in force.
The bill titled 'Right to Information (RTI) Act 2009' will have a retrospective effect from October 20, 2008, the day the immediate past caretaker government promulgated the right to information ordinance.
Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad placed the bill in supplementary orders of the day and sent it to the parliamentary standing committee on information ministry to report back to the House on scrutiny within 10 days.
All sorts of registered organisations will now come under the law and be bound to provide citizens with information on matters of public interest once the RTI is passed.
The bill was placed just a day after the prime minister's assurance of considering all the ordinances, which ceased to have any effect from yesterday.
The bill, however, suggested scrapping the RTI ordinance 2008 promulgated by the immediate past caretaker government.
Four other bills were also put before the parliament and were sent to the respective parliamentary standing committees for scrutiny before their placement in the House within 15 days.
Industries Minister Dilip Barua placed the Trade Mark Bill 2009, State Minister for Power Shamsul Haque Tuku put forward Dhaka Electricity Authority (amendment) bill 2009 while Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid tabled Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur bill 2009, and Bangladesh University of Professionals bill 2009.
The immediate past caretaker government promulgated those four ordinances. But they came to cease to have any effect from yesterday on their expiry, as they were not ratified in parliament by Tuesday.
The state minister for power placed the Dhaka Electricity Authority bill seeking to enact a law for continuation of the Dhaka Electricity Authority as public limited company made by the immediate past caretaker government.
Another two crucial bills---Human Rights Commission and Consumers' Right Protection---- will be placed today or within the next workday of the House. The two bills were already submitted to the parliament secretariat for their placement to the House, sources in the parliament secretariat said.
The immediate past caretaker government promulgated those two ordinances, whose timeframe expired yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Business Advisory Committee headed by Speaker Advocate Abdul Hamid is likely to sit today to extend the tenure of the current session.
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