After a gap of five months, the West Bengal Information Commission held a meeting on Monday. But even as chief information commissioner (CIC) Sujit Sarkar promised to "streamline" things, the panel's performance since its inception in 2005 has been nothing to write home about. Among those who keenly studied implementation of the Right to Information Act, 2005, in Bengal is Magsaysay awardee Arvind Kejriwal. Findings by Kejriwal's Public Cause Research...

State information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar on Monday accepted a complaint application from RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar and directed the authorities, including the district collector and the SP, Pune rural, to declare the information sought by slain whistleblower Satish Shetty on January 7. The commissioner also directed to give a copy of the report to RTI activist Arun Mane, Kumbhar said. Kumbhar had filed a complaint application, demanding declaration of all...

Withholding Talegaon land deal info sought by friend of slain activist Satish Shetty tantamount to violation of RTI Act, State Info Commission tells government agencies A day after slain RTI activist Satish Shetty's friend and fellow RTI campaigner Arun Mane was attacked, allegedly for pursuing matters that Shetty had been after before his death, the Pune bench of the State Information Commission yesterday issued a pathbreaking order when it asked for...

The Talegaon Dabhade police are checking the details of the cases, which were being pursued by RTI activist Arun Mane, to identify the persons behind the attack on the activist. Mane, a close associate of whistleblower Satish Shetty, was assaulted by an unidentified person at his footwear shop in Talegaon, about 40 km from here, on Sunday. Mane sustained minor injuries on his forehead chest. He was discharged from hospital...

The Central government's newly proposed RTI rules make its intentions suspect. GOVERNMENTS which have only superficial commitment to the promotion of human rights often come under considerable pressure from within to impose stealthily restrictions on their exercise. They try to introduce such restrictions without much publicity, seek to execute them in a tearing hurry, and couch them in legal jargon. The Central government's proposal to notify the Right to Information...