Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently alleged that Monsanto, the Union environment ministry’s genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had colluded to start trials of genetically modified maize in Bihar before clearance from the environment ministry and the state government. The charge is significant: Nitish says ICAR’s experimental farms in Bihar did not maintain the stipulated “isolation distance” from normal farmland, meant to...

Social activist Aruna Roy Thursday said India's second war of independence has to be fought with the right to information (RTI) law, to free the nation from poverty and corruption. 'The next battle is ready with information and understanding of issues through the RTI and it is the ideal tool to help eradicate poverty and corruption,' the Magsaysay awardee said. Roy is in Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya, to attend a...

Spurred by the success in drawing the government's attention to the plight of bonded Sahariya labourers in Baran, some like-minded organisations have come together to form the Rajasthan Adivasi Adhikar Manch (RAAM). It will be fighting for adivasis' rights. On Wednesday, the Manch held its first public hearing at the Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle. The meeting discussed non-implementation of tribal rights laws in the state, including the Forest Rights Act,...

Going with its slogan: “Our money our right,” the Shillong declaration of the 3rd National Right to Information Convention today resolved that the Central Government must subject “all public expenditure under social audit.” It was by far one of the most crucial of the other 11 resolutions passed in the Shillong Declaration and was only included after the strong insistence of RTI activist, Aruna Roy. She was amply supported by some...

A few helpless spectators of injustice dived into past pain and picked out poignant personal tales at a national convention to understand if the Right to Information Act can help them turn back and undo a few wrongs. V. Narzary was one such youth who came all the way from the Bodo belt in Assam to ask experts whether he could revisit, through the RTI Act, a case where the army...