Sri Lankan Parliament unanimously passes Right to Information bill

Sri Lankan Parliament has unanimously passed the Right to Information (RTI) bill aimed at restoring transparency and good governance in the country.

The RTI bill seeks to give citizens access to public information which is in the possession, custody or control of a public authority.

Key Features

The bill envisages setting up a 5 member RTI Commission and the appointment of information officers in every public authority to assist citizens who wish to obtain information.

Under it ambit it is mandatory for public authority to duly catalogue, indexed and preserved all public records.

Public authorities will also be required to preserve all their records in electronic format subject to the availability of resources.

However, the bill has kept personal data, national security information, financial and commercial policy decisions, intellectual property and medical reports out of its ambit.

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