The Right to Information (RTI) Act finally seems to be serving its purpose: empowering citizens with information which they can use to demand justice. Reeling under an attack on their houses, a group of 13 displaced tribal families from remote Bhadrachalam used the RTI Act to find out the status of the land on which they had constructed their huts a year ago. Armed with this information, they have now...

The Union Cabinet approves a new Bill to protect whistle-blowers, but there is concern whether its provisions will amount to much. ON March 22, a special court in Patna pronounced three persons guilty in the murder of Satyendra K. Dubey, a civil engineer from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He was shot dead on November 29, 2003, for blowing the whistle on corrupt practices in the Golden Quadrilateral Project in Bihar....

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's prolonged absence from her ministry has cost the exchequer more than Rs 11 lakh over a one-year period. Expenses for travel of five officials between Delhi and Kolkata to meet Mamata for clearing files have cost the Railways Rs 11,23,550. The officials in question are Officer on Special Duty to Railway Minister Gautam Sanyal, Private Secretary Santanu Basu, Executive Director (Public Grievance) J K Saha, Additional PS S...

‘Ek Cup Chya’, India’s first and only movie on the Right to Information Act, was screened by PCGT, an NGO working with RTI on Friday at the Indian Merchant Chambers. The film, which is in Marathi with English sub-titles, was made in 2009 by national award-winning directors Sumithra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar and produced by Dr Yashwant Oak. It features well-known Marathi actors like Kishore Kadam, Sunil Sukhthankar, Devika Daftardar, Ashwini Giri...

Gujarat Police are close to solving the murder of well-known Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Jethwa, a killing that has caused widespread outrage. Investigation into the brutal killing of the RTI activist in July has zeroed in on the family of BJP strongman and MP Dinu Bogha Solanki. The Ahmedabad Crime Branch says that arrested constable Bahadur Singh Vadher has confessed that Shiva Solanki, who is Dinu Solanki's nephew, allegedly...