Friday, May 13 2005 08:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Parliament yesterday (May 12, 2005) put its seal of approval on the "historic" Right to Information Bill with the Rajya Sabha passing the legislation after an assurance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that it was aimed at enhancing transparency and not paralysing public administration.

"The intention of the Bill is to enlarge the interface between citizens and processes of governance. It is not the intention of the Bill to paralyse public administration," Singh said while intervening in the discussion on the Bill.

The Bill, passed by Lok Sabha on Wednesday (May 11, 2005), was approved by the Upper House by voice vote amidst the continuing Opposition boycott after Minister of State for Personnel Suresh Pachauri said it would promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.

"It will mark the beginning of a new era," he said.

Describing the Bill as "pace-setting", the Prime Minister allayed apprehension that the Bill could be misused.

"Civilised Governments everywhere have been searching for ways and means to deal with problems of corruption and ineffectiveness of the government at various levels," he said adding the Bill is a quest for a mechanism to empower people to judge if Governments functioned in public interest.

He said the Bill has struck a right balance and the exemption list has been kept as small as possible. But, at the same time the bill has provided for getting information from security and intelligence agencies if required in corruption and human rights violation cases.