-The Indian Express The Government is also learnt to have finalized the name of Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General Saroj Punhani for the post of Information Commissioner. New Delhi: The Government is set to appoint former Indian Foreign Service officer and Information Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha as the new Chief Information Commissioner and journalist Uday Mahurkar as an Information Commissioner despite strong objections from Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Opposition member in the...
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PMO denies RTI plea seeking info on PM-CARES -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...
More »26 lakh migrant workers in halfway houses, says official data -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu This is an extreme underestimation, going by the other assessments made by Central and State governments, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s estimate of 8 crore stranded migrants. The Chief Labour Commissioner’s (CLC) office has counted over 26 lakh migrant workers stranded across the country, of which 10% are in relief camps or shelter homes, while 43% are in situ at workplaces and 46% are in other clusters. This is an extreme...
More »New draft rules downgrade CIC and ICs, cut their tenure and perks -Shyamlal Yadav
-The Indian Express The government had amended the RTI Act in July this year allowing it to fix the tenure of CIC and ICs of the Centre and states, and also to lay down terms and conditions of service. The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs) may no longer enjoy five-year tenures and pay and perks similar to that of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs)...
More »Incisive interventions that blunt the RTI's edge -Suhrith Parthasarathy
-The Hindu With the kernel of the Information Act under threat, the independence of the information commission is in peril When we describe India as a democracy what do we really mean? Are we referring merely to a system of popular sovereignty founded in universal adult franchise? Or are we suggesting something more — perhaps an assurance, grounded in the Constitution, of a set of rights, of the rights, among others, to...
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