RIGHT TO INFORMATION


Rajasthan, the state that steered the notable campaign out of which was born the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has hardly lain contented. Two years back, it created a formidable citizen pressure group, which spurred the state government to create the Jan Soochna portal which displays...

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Moneylife Digital Team 18 January 2022
Nineteen months after the announcement by none other than the prime minister’s office (PMO), ministries and departments under the Union government do not have any answer about receiving any funding from the PM’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund. In May...

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IANS 13 January 2022
The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) which allowed a petitioner to get to know the financial records and salaries of members and staff of Hockey India through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.   Noting that Hockey...

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Those appointed as a ‘public authority’ by companies as well as government, often look for every trick in the book to avoid giving information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, rather than facilitating the flow of information. Elected representatives, like those of Padra municipality...

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Repeatedly, research data and raids by the food safety authorities show that there is adulteration of milk with urea, starch, detergent, caustic soda, formalin, glucose and water. However, the lack of stringent action emboldens the culprits to carry on with this adulteration at the expense of...

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Remember the Right to Information (RTI) activist Bipin Agarwal, a resident of Motihari town of the East Champaran district of Bihar, who was shot dead on 24th September in broad daylight on a busy road, by two assailants astride a motorcycle? He was allegedly killed because of his incessant...

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In a stern and no-nonsense order, the Dharwad bench of the Karnataka High Court has directed all the state’s public authorities and the chief secretary to ensure that every public information officer (PIO) regularly stores information electronically so that information is quickly provided to...

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Recently, a division bench of the central information commission (CIC) declared Delhi’s Guru Harikishan Public School (GHPS), a minority educational institution, which is run by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DGSMC) under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act (DSG) enacted by the...

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Moneylife Digital Team 04 December 2021
“The erstwhile regime is now completely overturned, and we are now entering a new kind of regime, and I use the word regime because it signals a certain kind of distribution of power. A new regime whose contours we still do not fully understand. One of the features of this new regime is that...

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IANS 02 December 2021
The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Central Information Commission (CIC) to decide within eight weeks on a plea against the refusal of an RTI application seeking information on electronic surveillance ordered under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act (IT...

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The central information commissioner has ordered the secretary of the ministry of defence to organise basic training for its central public information officers (CPIOs) due to their deliberate dereliction of duty in disseminating information. This comes against the backdrop of a recent study...

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Moneylife Digital Team 26 November 2021
“During my tenure in the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), I used to ask my colleagues, why should they not provide information to the people under the Right to Information (RTI) Act? If information is all that is being asked for, as long as it is not revealing the business secrets of your...

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Barely two months back, Right to Information (RTI) activist Bipin Agarwal, a resident of Motihari town of Bihar, was shot dead on 24 September 2021 in broad daylight on a busy road by two assailants astride a motorcycle. Last week, a young RTI activist, Avinash Jha, all of 23 years old, was...

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In blatant disregard to the basic tenets of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Telangana chief secretary had ordered all public information officers (PIOs) in the state government to obtain an order from higher authorities before furnishing information to applicants under the Act. This,...

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When it comes to women’s empowerment, there is precious little the Right to Information Act (RTI) seems to have contributed to, thanks to a dismal 9% women using it as against 91% men. And the strength of women information commissioners across the country stands at an even worse, at...

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Moneylife Digital Team 28 October 2021
“The way information commission and courts are interpreting section 8(i)(j) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act is extremely regressive. There are judgements in our country that uphold RTI to be a fundamental right of citizens. There are also judgements, like the Puttuswamy judgement, which...

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In this 16th year of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005, the one thing that continues to cripple the Act’s efficacy is the pathetic performance of information commissioners (ICs), reflected in the backlog of second appeals and complaints piled up across the country. As of now, a whopping...

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The official details of the signing of the instrument of accession by Maharajah Hari Singh of Kashmir has not only been kept under secrecy for 75 years now by successive governments, but has even led to several decades of allegations of motives and vested interests regarding the document. An...

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Moneylife Digital Team 13 October 2021
"We need to keep on with jan andolans, dharnas and morchas, but politicians in the government are scared of only losing their power. In a democracy, citizens have this power. They can strip any government of its power. For better governance, we need to work towards empowering citizens," says...

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Anna Hazare may have catapulted to nationwide recognition in 2010, but this stalwart social reformer has been a campaigner and catalyst for social change in Maharashtra for at least seven decades. After the 'India Against Corruption'’ campaign disbanded and turned political, this humble man...

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