-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-PTI Alok Kumar Verma, the former Delhi Police Commissioner, was on January 19, named as the chief of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) The government has refused to share details of appointment of CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma, claiming the information was exempted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Replying to an RTI query, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said the appointment was done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led...

-The Indian Express Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has rejected the Congress allegations, saying the proposed Rules regarding the word limit and application fees remain the same as they were under the UPA government. On March 31, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal department for the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI), put on its web site a circular titled “Framing RTI Rules, 2017 in supersession of...

-PTI Cases relating to delay in fixation and payment of pension and arrears to be dealt with urgently New Delhi: Right to information (RTI) applications seeking pension details should be replied to within 48 hours as it pertains to the "life and liberty" of the elderly, the Central Information Commission has held as it pitched for early redressal of such grievances. The Commission also directed that if an RTI application is a genuine...