A logo for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, designed by a faculty of the National Institute of Design (NID), created quite a buzz in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. But the revelation, it seems, has not gone down too well with RTI Activists in the city. They have not only expressed their displeasure by saying the process lacks ‘transparency’, but also filed an RTI seeking details pertaining to the entire process. The...

Leader of Opposition J Jayalalithaa on Monday charged that the appointment of the next Chief Information Commissioner of the State in a non-transparent manner without consulting her had defeated the very objective of the Right To Information Act. She also reiterated her view that the appointment of new CIC was illegal. In a statement here, Jayalalithaa said the purpose of making the Leader of the Opposition one of the members of...

Slain Gujarat—based RTI activist Amit Jethwa has been chosen for a gallantry award instituted by a voluntary organisation working in the field of transparency. The organisation, National RTI Forum, has instituted several gallantry awards for RTI Activists who have dared the adversities to get information from government on the issues concerning larger public interest and exposing corruption in the process. Jethwa will be given the ‘Satish Shetty Award for Gallantry’ posthumously. The ‘Lalit...

The swearing in of Tamil Nadu’s new chief information commissioner, K.S. Sripathy, was marked by the arrest of three right to information activists who were protesting against his appointment outside the Raj Bhavan. M. Gopalakrishnan, Siva Elango and Madhav Vishnubhatta were arrested from the entrance to the Raj Bhavan, where Sripathy was taking oath, holding up placards that read: “Save RTI”, “No transparency in Appointments”, “Non-transparent appointment to uphold transparency?” They were...

From retired and serving babus to journalists to even RTI Activists and academicians, everyone seems to be angling for the posts of chief information commissioner (CIC) and information commissioners (ICs). In a delicious irony, all the names have come out in an RTI reply. Replying to an RTI plea filed by Mannish Bhatnagar, the department of personnel and training said 32 names were received for the posts of CIC and...