-Hindustan Times It took nearly 15 years for India's Right to Information Act (RTI) to finally become a law in 2005 after the late VP Singh (who was India's prime minister briefly) first stressed the importance of a law that would give citizens the right to seek and get information. But now that landmark act could become toothless in far less time than that. If that happens, it will be a...
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Attorney general is a public authority, must be under RTI: HC -Abhinav Garg
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Attorney General is not merely a lawyer for the government, but is a constitutional authority, the Delhi High Court has said, bringing the top law officer under the ambit of the RTI Act. Justice Vibhu Bakhru on Tuesday held the office of AG to be a "public authority" as per the transparency act and reversed the decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC). In 2012...
More »Days before Pillai row, Environment told Coal: stop Mahan block auction -Jay Mazoomdaar
-The Indian Express Three weeks before Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from travelling to London where she was to speak on the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh, the Ministry of Environment and Forests asked the Ministry of Coal not to auction the block as it is "located in inviolate forest area". Pillai was stopped at Delhi airport on January 11...
More »Maharashtra farmer suicides: 50% of kin denied relief -Chittaranjan Tembhekar
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Families of nearly half of the farmers in Maharashtra who have committed suicide over the last four years are not eligible to get even the paltry Rs 1 lakh compensation thanks to government rules. Maharashtra, along with Tamil Nadu, WB, AP, Chhattisgarh and MP, registers a high number of farmer suicides. An RTI application by activist Jitendra Ghadge has revealed that of the total 5,698 suicides registered...
More »NDA planned to amend, restrict rural job Act -Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-Business Standard Limits funds to states under the scheme and still looking to reduce labour budget ratios The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had begun work on amending the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), restricting the coverage to a few backward districts, leaving out large portions of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala from its ambit. The plan was eventually shelved after protests and a debate in...
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