-Forbes India Why the recent Supreme Court ruling threatens to kill citizens’ Right to Information The Supreme Court has placed the Central Information Commission (CIC), the apex body to deal with appeals regarding rti, as well as the Information Commissions across the states in a fine pickle. On September 13, a division bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by Justice AK Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar, passed an order which would fundamentally change...

-The Hindu Aggrieved women have received rations only thrice in the past five years Two semi-literate housewives, Beena and Mitra Devi, hesitantly but wilfully trail us, ration card in hand, on a hot Saturday afternoon. We are walking towards Fair Price Shop No. 7980 in Harsh Vihar near Delhi’s border with Ghaziabad. Though fearful of the ration shop owner and his toughs, these two women realise it is now or never. They...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: Competitive parenting has reached a new level, with parents taking the rti route to lay their hands on the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Class 10th) answer scripts of their kid's classmates. The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, which conducts the exam for over eight lakh students every year, is in a fix. Following a spike in such applications, it has written to the Karnataka government seeking...

-The Hindustan Times The bureaucracy is determined to make you pay for your right to information (rti), literally. Documents released under the transparency law reveal that the government has been planning to make people pay to file appeals since 2009. So far, rti applicants only have to pay a fee of Rs. 10 for filing applications. If the information request is denied, they are entitled to appeal against the decision, initially to the...

-The Times of India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked members of the ministerial panel to expeditiously clear the land acquisition bill, showing urgency on the legislation that is part of the core Congress agenda but has been held up for three years because of in-house differences. The bill was referred to a group of ministers after the Cabinet erupted over its key provisions, with ministers handling economic and infrastructure wings arguing...