RIGHT TO INFORMATION


The Central Information Commission (CIC), which had given the task of compiling success stories of Right to Information (RTI) from across the States, to Pune’s Yashwantrao Chavan Academy for Development and Administration (YASHDA), has come out with a glossy, 120-page coffee table book. This...

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Senior activists, including former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who attended the 11th National RTI convention held in Delhi last week are disturbed at the growing trend of questioning the motives of Right to Information (RTI) activists and accusing them of having ulterior...

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Most people in power and powerful institutions dislike Right to Information (RTI) Act since it exposes corruption and arbitrariness. Consequently, a strong lie and myth has been created of calling RTI users and activists’ as misusers, extortionists and blackmailers. Almost everyone who uses...

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While many activists have been lamenting the lack of seriousness about making Right to Information (RTI) effective, here is some good news for activists and those passionate about the extraordinary empowerment that this statute has provided.    The Department of Personnel and Training...

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Moneylife Digital Team 29 October 2016
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responds to former Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Mr Shailesh Gandhi  in less than 24 hours, assuring him that the "Government is (in the) process of filling all these vacancies”. Mr Shailesh Gandhi, former CIC had written a public letter...

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Maharashtra, which witnessed the first ever murder of an activist who was using Right to Information (RTI) Act in India, Satish Shetty, also has the dubious distinction of being the state with the highest number of assault and murder of RTI activists. Since the implementation of RTI Act in...

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Rakesh Kumar Gupta, who claimed to be an informer to the Income Tax department (I-T Dept), filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking information of all the records available with the I-T Dept in respect of several assessees for various assessment years.  The...

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28 September 2016: CIC calls for hearing after two years;    6 January 2016: Appellant’s son has already died    On 1 February 2013, Parag Ingle, an 8th standard student from the prestigious Loyola High School of Pune, was hit on the forehead with a bullet that came from the...

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It is time to recruit Information Commissioners once again; and this time, let the vacancies not be filled with former bureaucrats, which according to the “India Rapid Study by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in July 2014” account for 69% of Information Commissioners appointed, across...

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Moneylife Digital Team 14 September 2016
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's largest private sector company owes a whopping Rs1,576.90 crore as additional premium charges to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as a lease-holder of two plots at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, reveals a reply received...

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Despite the historic 2011 judgment of the Supreme Court, where procuring copies of answer sheets by students came under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) continued to defy it. In a reply to a RTI query, posed by Whistle for Public Interest...

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Moneylife Digital Team 06 September 2016
In what may be called as a shocking revelation, Mumbai-based Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art, the oldest art institution in the city, is functioning with just about 25% of sanctioned strength of teachers. According to information procured by Anil Galgali under the Right to Information...

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Moneylife Digital Team 29 August 2016
The BrihanMumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, which is civic transport and electricity provider public body based in Mumbai, has suffered a massive loss of Rs905.3 crore on transportation services during FY2015-16 reveals a reply received under the Right to Information...

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Believe it or not, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corp (MSRDC) actually states in black and white that it is conducting transaction surveys to finalise the foreclosure of concessionaire claims. So, for 10 years they collected toll with no cash flow statements.   Last week, we...

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In a strange move, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), has once again invited online tenders for videographic traffic count survey for all five entry points to Mumbai (when such a survey was done a year ago); for the Peth-Sangli-Miraj-Mhaisal state highway (the toll...

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That, government salaries quite match those in the corporate world, has been aptly proven with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the bold step of pro-active disclosures, under Section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act by public authorities, on the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)...

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In a powerful verdict, a Divisional Bench of Central Information Commissioners, Sharat Sabharwal and Sudhir Bhargava ordered Union Bank of India (UBI) to pro-actively disclose its mix business on a quarterly basis. The Bench at the Central Information Commission (CIC) also observed that daily...

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IANS 02 August 2016
It is not just the opposition which is out to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emotive connect with the river Ganga. Statistics show that very little has been done in the past two years -- in spite of spending Rs 1,958 crore of the Rs 3,703 crore allocated -- to improve the condition...

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If financial irregularities, chikki and land scams are not enough, did you know that a concocted, counterfeit GR (government resolution) is also being used to greedily eat up public funds, in the name of public service? Moreover, it is a strange case of fake GR made by Mantralaya and...

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Against the backdrop of Maharashtra State Chief Information Commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad having ‘illegally’ issued transfer orders of information commissioners in 2012 and 2014 and the state government not questioning it, the Bombay High Court has now asked as to “just who is empowered to...

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