Right To Information
The killing of activist Lalit Mehta in Jharkhand was a diabolical warning to those who question, write ARUNA ROY and NIKHIL DEY. (Indian Express, June 14, 2008)
In the more than one year of its existence, the commission found 96 cases where PIO had illegally denied information. Despite pompous pronouncements of Rs 25,000 penalties against errant PIOs, not one errant PIO has been fined till date. A Hindustan Times article.
Students of JNU have been involved in protests against the violation of minimum wages of workers on the campus. Some of the leading activists of that movement including three of the JNU Students' Union office bearers are currently facing a crackdown by the JNU Administration.
Three citizens of New Delhi plan to present a Public Interest Litigation demanding that the government act to proactively increase transparency and engender a greater environment of participative democracy by changing nomenclature of public functioning.
When the BPO call centers are buzzing with businesses in Gurgoan and Banglore, one new call center is humbly set out to create a revolution -- in a place which will probably come last to your mind in IT hotlist -- Patna.
On his blog, Sandip Dasverma points out that the Orissa government has set up an MoU that sells Orissa's Iron Ore at 0.57 cents/tonne while world market prices are $44/tonne for fines and $76/tonne for pellets and increasing. Is the Orissa government merely incompetent or is there more than meets the eye?
In a rare case, the Information Commission has slapped the wrists of the Tamil Nadu Public Authority Department for failing to provide information about Public Information Officers.
Arvind Kejriwal, 2006 Magsasay Awardee for "activating the right to information movement at the grassroots" speaks about various aspects of clean governance via Right to Information.
Anna Hazare now has undertaken a march through rural Maharashtra from 14th September 2006 to 9th November 2006 to present to people the context of the Right to Information Act and how it can empower our citizens. His message is presented for our readers.
Indians for Collective Action celebrates its 11th annual dinner by on October 15th by honoring Arvind Kejriwal and Dr. Larry Brilliant
A review of three different articles on the importance of complete access to files vis-a-vis RTI by Arvind Kejriwal in The Stateman, Aruna Roy and Nikhil De in The Kashmir Times and Maja Daruwala and Venkatesh Nayak in The Daily Tribue.
Under pressure from citizens all over the country, the UPA government has decided not to introduce any amendment to RTI during this session.
Communities around the nation have joined hands in opposing the amendment to the Right to Information. We are asking you to take small steps that can strengthen the freedom of India.
Do you remember being filled with pride when people praise India for being the largest functioning democracy in the world?
Do you remember hanging your head in shame when people ridicule India's reputation as one of the most corrupt nations?
If you answered yes to one or both of the above questions, then you should ACT NOW.
Various citizen groups and civic society leaders have expressed disappointment at the attempted amendment to limit file notings from RTI disclosures.
The Government of India plans to introduce an amendment to the RTI that will exempt file notings and cabinet papers from disclosure under the Right to Information Act 2005. This is the second attempt to do so; the earlier attempt in Dec 2005 was scuttled under protests from citizens of India.
The Right to Information Act comes into force all over the country on October 12. Citizens should make use of it to ensure transparency and help good governance triumph.