-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With Parliament failing to provide a safety net, political parties now have to comply with the Central Information Commission (CIC) order bringing them under the Right To Information law as not doing so exposes them to the risk of legal action, including summons to party presidents. The commission on July 28 received a complaint of "non-compliance" from activist S C Agrawal who, along with Association...

-Newslaundry.com There's always outrage at the government ad spend on the death and birth centenaries of our erstwhile politicians. On Rajiv Gandhi's death centenary in 2013, we carried a report with incorrect figures. Following which, we filed a Right To Information (RTI) application to ask for the amount of advertising spend by the government on Rajiv Gandhi's death centenary ads in the Delhi editions of various English newspapers. When we contacted...

-The Telegraph ■ Pushpa Devi, a homemaker-turned-panchayat representative of Baridih block, Bokaro, used Right to Information (RTI) Act to stop illegal sale of government land ■ Vijay Yadav, a ward councillor of Koderma, ensured through RTI Act that private English-medium schools adhered to Right to Education Act provisions and enrolled poor students under reservation ■ Mukesh Rajak, a youth from Madhupur block, Deoghar, used the RTI Act to expose MGNREGS irregularities Ranchi: They...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The rules of the game have changed for the political class, with the Supreme Court asking the government on Friday to enforce its order for immediate disqualification of sitting MPs, MLAs and MLCs convicted for an offence attracting a sentence of two years. "Sitting Members of Parliament and state legislators are no longer protected by clause 4 of Section 8 of the Representation of People Act,"...

-The Indian Express Holding back the RTI amendment is not the best way to address public concerns about party finance. There has been great civil society uproar over the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to extricate political parties from mandatory public disclosures, and nullify the Central Information Commission's recent order. While passing the amendment would have been all too easy, given the broad political consensus, a last-minute turnaround in...