RIGHT TO INFORMATION


The Leaflet 30 March 2022
The Madhya Pradesh State Information Commission (MP SIC) on 25 March 2022 issued an arrest warrant against Surbhi Dubey, who is a block panchayat officer (BDO) at Rewa Janpad Panchayat and a designated public information officer (PIO), for skipping as many as 38 summonses issued by the...

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While the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 halted the desire of Pune’s corporators to go on a spree of naming public spaces after their family members, when only 20 names were proposed and sanctioned, out of which 13 names were dedicated to corporators and their family members. About 100 proposals...

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An application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, requisitioning inspection reports of National Stock Exchange (NSE) prepared by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has been declined, stating that the information pertains to internal functioning of the market...

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Subhedari Guest House is a prestigious government guest house in Aurangabad. The ratings on Google are ‘excellent’. Recently, I requested my friend to book a VIP room for me as I was visiting the city for a personal or official trip.   Firstly, it took a while to locate the person in...

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The usage and propagation of Right to Information (RTI) are moving at a fast pace because of citizen enthusiasm and desire for accountable governance. The biggest gain has been empowering individual citizens to translate the promise of ‘democracy of the people, by the people, for the people’...

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A quick look at the annual report of 2020-21 of the central information commission (CIC) shows that 25,367 applications (47.38%) were rejected under Section 8 (1) of Right to Information (RTI) Act, which spells out exemptions from disclosure of information in its 10...

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While the COVID-19 pandemic, in its first avatar in 2020, mercilessly stalled most of the activities all over the world, India’s enthusiastic Right to Information (RTI) users ensured that they continued to demand transparency, albeit with a marginal fall of only 2.95% in their applications....

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The ‘Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India’, which was published in 2021, revealed that Maharashtra’s state information commission (SIC) registered the highest number of second appeals and complaints to the tune of 41,978, which moved up to 87,577 cases later that...

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A lot of ink has been spilled on the controversial issue of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund, including on the debate on whether it is a public authority at all. However, its audit statement uploaded on the website is full of...

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Last week, the High Court (HC) of Jharkhand in Ranchi upheld the 11-year-old state information commissioner (SIC)’s order of paying compensation to the RTI applicant to the tune of Rs60,000 to be paid by the errant public authority, which in this case, is the health and family welfare...

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An application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking information about the purchase of the spyware `Pegasus’ from Israel-based NSO group and the availing of services from NSO is presently languishing as a second appeal at the Central Information Commission (CIC) for the past...

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Time and again, we are reminded that the Right to Information (RTI) Act is used for diverse purposes to procure information at the individual level but which, indeed, have social ramifications.   One such issue is the procurement of a copy of the Aadhaar of a child whose parents have...

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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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