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...
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RTI under attack by V Eshwar Anand
EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...
More »Posco questions Naveen’s 90 pc job promise to locals by Debabrata Mohanty
Posco, whose mega steel project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district hangs in balance after Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a stop-work order last week, has now questioned the Naveen Patnaik government’s plan to reserve 90 per cent jobs in the unskilled and semi-skilled category for “local people” for all upcoming industrial projects. A High Level Clearance Authority of the state government chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently cleared a proposal...
More »RTI activists facing threat, admits govt by Mayank Aggarwal
The Centre admitted on Thursday that people trying to expose corruption with the help of the Right to Information (RTI) Act were facing harassment. In response to a query whether the government knew about increasing threats to people using RTI against corruption, minister of state in the prime minister’s office (PMO), Prithviraj Chavan, told parliament, “Yes, reports have appeared in the media about the threats. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has...
More »Something Is Rotten by Anuradha Raman
Systemic Failure * Despite record procurement, poor storage has led to a criminal waste of grain * 61,000 tonnes of grain rotted as it was left in the open during the monsoon * The FCI had shut down storage facilities after low procurement in 2006-07 * The plan for decentralised storage facilities is 40 years old. It’s still hanging fire. * EGoM did not clear the surplus grains for the PDS since it would have...
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