-The Business Standard The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, like its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) predecessor, seems to be failing on suo motu disclosures under the Right to Information Act (RTI). The department of personnel & training (DoPT) had last month issued an official memorandum directing all central ministries and departments to upload replies to RTI applications and first appeals on their respective websites from October 31. This had...

-The Indian Express   The NDA government's move to amend the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 in the coming winter session of Parliament has run into rough weather following differences between various government departments over whether government servants and their family members should declare their assets, and whether such information should be made public or not. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is learnt to have sided with the bureaucracy in...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: It had been expected to dilute the UPA government's showpiece Right to Information (RTI) Act that had become a scourge of sorts for its ministers and bureaucrats and was even blamed by some as a contributing factor for the policy paralysis during its reign. But the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has done the reverse and taken RTI to quite another level. Starting next month, all replies...

-CNN-IBN New Delhi: Giving up convention of appointing the senior-most Information Commissioner as the Chief of the Central Information Commission, the Centre on Friday advertised the position inviting applications from the general public. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal ministry for RTI matters, has invited applications from the people in a given format before November 24. According to the Act, the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) shall be a person of...

-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: As a headless Central Information Commission (CIC) controversially celebrates nine years of the transparency law behind closed doors, there are indications that the CIC chief's absence has already dented the watchdog's autonomy. Being without a chief has placed the commission on a weak legal footing. According to documents accessed under the RTI law, the government has taken control over the CIC's purse strings and placed them in...