-The Deccan Herald The Central Information Commission (CIC) has stated that a citizen’s right to information would get primacy over an individual’s right to privacy, adding weight to the principle of transparency. In an important decision, the transparency panel said though the state had no right to invade the privacy of an individual but in extraordinary circumstances, where the government sought information from citizens, details could be given out under the Right...

-PTI Irked over non-submission of property details by some bureaucrats, the government is considering strict action, including withholding of annual increment, against the defaulters.  The government has already issued repeated reminders to a number of officials of Central Secretariat Service (Under Secretary and above level) seeking their Immovable Property Returns (IPRs).  "Despite this, some of them have not submitted IPRs. It has been noted that many of them give details of the returns...

-The Pioneer In what could puncture the Government’s defence that there were no irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks when the Coal Ministry was under the charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has specifically asked the CBI to look into the role of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Screening Committee of the Coal Ministry. The CVC has also asked the agency to probe why auction...

Soon, anyone would be able to file an RTI application over the phone, with help and guidance from a call centre as well as through a website While the government is consistently blamed for diluting the RTI (Right to Information) Act in several ways besides making illogical amendments at the state level, it is gearing up to make filing of RTI applications by just making a phone call. Citizens will not...

-The Times of India Encouraged by usage of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, the government has decided to set up a state-of-the-art call centre and an interactive website to facilitate easy exchange of information related to the transparency law to citizens. The project was envisaged after taking insights from a government study which highlighted inconvenience faced by citizens in exercising their rights to information. According to a department of personnel...