Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may claim that peace prevails everywhere in West Bengal since her party came to power in the state, but police records say a different story altogether. The state, according to the police records, has witnessed 642 political clashes, including those of student politics, across the districts in the first five months and eighteen days after Banerjee assumed power. A total of 926 political workers that include 128 students...

A man from Vasna who had filed an application under the Right to Information Act seeking to know why police stations in the city did not display essential information for the benefit of RTI applicants has alleged police are using intimidatory tactics, summoning him for hearings at short notices and making him sit with criminals. Manish Benani, who owns a small printing press, had requested former police commissioner of Ahmedabad Sudhir...

-The Hindu The Union Law and Justice Ministry has decided to challenge the Central Information Commission (CIC) order directing it to disclose the 2007 advice tendered to A. Raja by the then Solicitor- General, Goolam E. Vahanvati. The first mention of the advice was by Mr. Raja himself — in a letter the former Telecom Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on December 26, 2007. In the letter, which was in response...

The new RTI rules framed and implemented by the Chhattisgarh government is a clear attempt and snatching a citizen’s fundamental right of access to information and strangulating the RTI Act. Citizens are requested to sent protest letters in large numbers The Right to Information Act (RTI) is being clipped by several state governments in an attempt to discourage/refuse rightful information to the citizens. Instead of furthering transparency, which is the primary...

-The Greater Kashmir   Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of institutional incompetence which is slowly rendering the Right to Information Act a "toothless tiger" in the state. "The manner in which hurdles are deliberately being created to avoid effective RTI implementation apparently points to only conclusion that the government and its administration are hell bent on avoiding answers as it fears that Genie may come out...