RIGHT TO INFORMATION


While the Rajya Sabha’s Parliamentary Standing Committee succeed in amending the RTI Act to keep political parties out of the RTI ambit, Anu Aga was only one voice of dissent in the Committee Aam Aadmi Party’s stunning electoral success has to do with the brazenness with which all the...

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Association for Democratic Reforms has filed a complaint to the Central Information Commission (CIC) to take action against Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI (M), NCP and BSP Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which along with right to information (RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal has...

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Moneylife Digital Team 05 December 2013
Information Commissioner Sushma Singh would take over as CIC from Deepak Sandhu later this month Sushma Singh, the senior-most Information Commissioner, will be the next Chief Information Commissioner under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. She would succeed Deepak Sandhu, who...

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Moneylife Digital Team 04 December 2013
Following strong protests from RTI activists and citizens, the Maharashtra SIC withdrawn his order the blocked access to building plans under the transparency law Following strong protest by activist and citizens, the Maharashtra state chief information commissioner (SIC) has withdrawn...

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While 3rd December is commemorated as World Disability Day, how many know that RTI could empower the disabled to know about various welfare schemes, grants, concessions and scholarships they are entitled to? While the Right to Information (RTI) Act is being used as a powerful tool by...

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Moneylife Digital Team 21 November 2013
Maharashtra SIC has ordered BMC and all other local bodies not to disclose building plans under the RTI Act, used by activists to expose illegal and unauthorised construction activities The Maharashtra state chief information commissioner (SIC) has directed all local bodies in the...

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Moneylife’s consistent campaign since March 2013, has led to a series of customer-friendly initiatives by MEA and TCS; the latest is with mobile technology. The mPassport Seva app provides a wide variety of services such as status tracking, locating a passport office and other general...

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21-year old Bhadresh Wamja becomes the youngest Sarpanch of Saldi village, from where he had launched his RTI campaign against ration shops as a teenager. Two years ago, Bhadresh succeeded in persuading the Gujarat government to proactively disclose ration supply information on the walls of...

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The RTI is one of the most powerful tools and an essential democratic right of every Indian citizen. A handy guide takes you through the steps to file an effective guide The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) that came into force eight years back has proven to be one of the most...

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Public Information Officers -PIOs not performing their duty of providing information is a frequent experience of an RTI activist Early this week, I once again experienced rejection, or rather telling of a brazen lie regarding the controversial water cut in Pune that was stalled recently...

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At Pune’s headquarters of the food supply department, the tehsildar is ignorant, even arrogant about proactive disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act Since the last one week, I have been following up with the Food Supply office of the Pune district collectorate to gather information...

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The Central Information Commission and DoPT have put detailed guidelines on suo motu disclosure by public authorities, but most PIOs continue to be ignorant or to feign ignorance about Section 4 of the RTI Act On Tuesday, I visited the Food Supply Office of the Pune district Collectorate...

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For the first time ever, a cabinet note, otherwise deemed `secret document’ is uploaded in the public domain to facilitate public consultations; thanks to public outcry A handbook issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, on guiding Parliamentarians on how to write cabinet notes states...

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The Parliamentary Committee has sought citizens’ suggestions on the RTI Amendment Bill, 2013. However, there seems to be a deliberate attempt by government to restrict responses to Hindi and English languages, thus depriving half of the population a chance to file their suggestions and...

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In order to reduce the number of individual RTI applications, Department of Personnel & Training-DoPT, has issued fresh guidelines to public authorities to suo motu publish all information as required under Section 4 of the RTI Act, based on a taskforce report. But does any public authority...

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After several weeks of disgust over political parties trying to slip out of the RTI Act, good news beckons for citizens in India and abroad who want to file RTI online Do you want to seek information under Right to Information (RTI) about public distribution of grains or demand a copy of...

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Adamant until the last few days to quickly pass the RTI Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha, on Wednesday, political parties instead decided to send it to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for further discussion and public consultation Hurrah to activists, citizens, the print, electronic and...

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Moneylife Digital Team 05 September 2013
MPs Baijayant Panda, Ajoy Kumar, Dinesh Trivedi and Omar Abdullah, along with several prominent activists have opposed the amendment in RTI Act to keep political parties out of gambit of the law Finally a better sense prevailed in the Parliament and the Right to Information (RTI)...

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If you read this researched study done by RTI scholar-activist Venkatesh Nayak on the transparency in finances of political parties across 40 under-developed, developing and developed countries, you would be ashamed at the ruckus being created by our politicians in India   The latest...

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Today, perhaps, political parties will move the bill to be passed in the Parliament, to invalidate the June 2013 order of the Central Information Commission, which declared six national political parties as ‘public authorities’ under the RTI Act. Hear some sane voices from the political...

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