If the daily haggling to get work done at Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has left you frustrated, here is another shocker. An application under Right to Information (RTI) by a citizen Kanubhai Shah has revealed that SMC charges much more than any other civic body for even blank forms, that too more than its actual printing cost. Sample this: An unemployed person wanting to apply for job in SMC needs to buy...
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Ex-sarpanch gets life for killing RTI activist's kin by Bhaskar Mukherjee
FATEHABAD: An additional district and sessions court on Monday handed down life imprisonment to a former sarpanch of Chandrawal village, who allegedly mowed down daughter-in-law of a whistleblower RTI activist. Announcing the life sentence, additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) L N Jindal also slapped a fine of Rs 6,000 each on former sarpanch Dharambir Malik and driver Satbir Singh. Two whistleblowers Jagdish Kumar and Phool Singh of Chandrawal had sought information...
More »RTI exposes a dam that never was
-The Times of India LOHARDAGA: The Right to Information (RTI) Act has exposed a scam worth over Rs 32 lakh. The report received under RTI has been submitted as supportive evidence in the case that was lodged recently with the Senha police station (Case No. 13/12) under various sections of IPC for cheating the government and the public. The complainant, Ganesh Sahu, a social activist has accused three concerned engineers in the...
More »Indirect ways to kill RTI, PMO refuses info on more than one query by Chetan Chauhan
Civil society pressure may have forced the government to keep proposed changes in the Right To Information (RTI) Act in abeyance but the information officers are quietly implementing them. The government has proposed restrictions on RTI applications that only one issue can be raised in one application and it should not be more than 250 words. But, it had to withdraw amendments following objection by RTI proponents such as National Advisory...
More »RTI, weak governance helping information escape from govt hands
-The Economic Times What's common between foggy movements of two army battalions, the government auditor's assessments of large notional losses to the exchequer and a letter from the army chief to the PM on his unit's preparedness for war? The information in each of these instances in the past six months was marked 'secret' in official files, but screamed its way to the public, forcing the government into damage-control mode. Information leaks in...
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