New Delhi, Aug. 2 : The Union Cabinet has cleared crucial changes to the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep the political parties out of its ambit by declaring that they are not public authorities.

The Cabinet gave its nod to amend the transparency law nearly two months after the Central Information Commission's order of bringing the six national political parties Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP under the RTI Act.

The decision in this regard was taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday.

As per the amendments, the political parties as public authorities under the RTI would 'hamper their smooth internal functioning since it will encourage political rivals to file RTI applications with malicious intentions'.

They maintain that the Representation of the People Act and the Income Tax Act provide sufficient transparency regarding financial aspects of political parties.

Under Section 2 of the RTI Act, the definition of public authority in the proposed amendment will make it clear that 'it shall not include any political party registered under the Representation of the Peoples Act'.

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