Amidst much indignation over the need for more transparency to fight corruption, the state government has ordered to keep the Special Police Establishment (SPE) of the Lokayukta and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) out of the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005, raising suspicion over the motive behind the action. The General Administration Department issued a notification on August 25. RTI Activists and civil society groups allege that the government...
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Information Martyr by Chandrani Banerjee
Shehla Masood had to die because the state couldn’t protect her Shehla Masood’s worst fears came to pass on August 16: she was shot dead in front of her house in Bhopal at around 11 am. An RTI Activist who had taken up a variety of issues, from good governance, transparency and police reforms to tiger conservation, and who had been collecting evidence using the RTI Act since 2005, she...
More »Ex-CM's son quizzed in Shehla murder case by Suchandana Gupta
The son of a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister has been questioned by police in connection with RTI Activist Shehla Masood's murder. Two other BJP leaders have been sent notices to appear before the investigating team. BJP MLA from Bhopal Dhruv Narayan Singh, who is also the son of former late chief minister Govind Narayan Singh, has been questioned about his relationship with Masood. Of the two other BJP leaders,...
More »RTI Act almost defunct in state by Anindo Dey
Even as the state tries to provide a corruption-free government with the Lokseva Guarantee Bill, a similar venture by it earlier has fallen by the wayside. With no chief information commissioner (CIC) in the state for the past five months the much-trumpeted Right To Information (RTI) Act, which aims to bring in transparency, has almost become defunct. Incidentally, Rajasthan had taken the first steps in bringing this law in the...
More »Death of an activist. Murder or suicide? by Priyanka Dubey
SHEHLA MASOOD’S eventful life was brutally cut short on 16 August, when her body was found in the front seat of her car. A fierce wildlife conservationist and RTI Activist, 38-year-old Shehla was also a flamboyant socialite of Bhopal. The murder in broad daylight outside her bungalow in the posh Koh-e-Fiza area sent ripples across the otherwise peaceful city. With the state media jumping from one conclusion to another and...
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