-PTI A sum of over Rs. 642 crore has been incurred on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's air travels abroad in the last nine years. This information has been made public by the PMO as part of obligations under the mandatory proactive disclosure clause of the Right to Information Act. The information reveals that Singh undertook 67 travels since 2004 when he took over as PM, of which bills of five have not been...
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What we need is not a food security Bill but a hunger elimination Act -Arvind Virmani
-The Times of India In the decade or so that i was at the Planning Commission, i always had advisory responsibility for the food ministry/public distribution system, among other issues of development policy. It did not take very long to find out that the fundamental problem with the system was about so-called "leakages" abetted by corruption: One soon learnt that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was one of the most...
More »Press Release: Political Parties brought under RTI Act; Full Bench CIC directs them to provide information under RTI
-Press Release of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) On 3rd of June 2013, a full bench of Central Information Commission (CIC) comprising of Chief Information Commissioner Shri. Satyananda Mishra and Information Commissioners Shri. M.L. Sharma and Smt. Annapurna Dixit gave a landmark judgment where they ruled in favor of bringing Political Parties under the ambit of Right to Information Act (RTI). In October 2010, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed RTIs...
More »Central Information Comission tells Congress, BJP, BSP others to respond to RTI queries in 4 weeks
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: How much rent does Congress Party pay for its sprawling office in Lutyens' Delhi? Who are the people who contribute to BJP's coffers? How much tax exemptions has NCP claimed? Whose aircraft are used by Congress President Sonia Gandhi during election campaigning? Now the common man can access information on all this and much more - all for just 10. In a landmark judgement that could force...
More »The Neglect of Health, Women and Justice-AK Shiva Kumar
-Economic and Political Weekly A report on the 2013 deliberation of the Kolkata Group at its 10th workshop which focused on healthcare, the status of women and social justice in India. A K Shiva Kumar (akshivakumar@gmail.com) is convener of the Kolkata Group workshops which are organised by Pratichi (India) Trust, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and UNICEF India. At the 10th annual Kolkata Group workshop in February this year, 40 policymakers, development practitioners,...
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