-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Will the Lokpal become just another retirement home for ex-bureaucrats? Government rules say only serving and retired secretary-level officers to the government of India and their equivalent can become non-judicial members, ensuring that the fledgling Lokpal goes the way of the Central Information Commission and power and telecom regulators like CERC and Trai. Describing this as "unfortunate" and "illegitimate", activists under the aegis of the National...

-PTI People can now buy postal orders online to file RTI applications after payment of fee through a postal department website. Earlier this facility was only available to Indian citizens living abroad. "This facility has been provided for Indian citizens to facilitate them to seek information from the Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) under the RTI Act, 2005. "Debit or Credit Cards of any Bank powered by Visa or Master can be used to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission on Monday finally set the ball rolling on action against the six national political parties for violating its directions and not appointing public information officers in the last eight months. The commission issued notices to Congress, BJP, CPM, NCP, BSP and CPI for failing to comply to its June 3, 2013 order that recognized political parties as public authorities. The transparency watchdog...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With every passing day, the current parliamentary session - which is the last one before the Lok Sabha election - seems less and less likely to pass the six corruption-related Bills promised by Rahul Gandhi. In a bid to salvage the situation, Aruna Roy's group has zeroed in two of those six Bills, saying that they were "non-controversial" and "necessary complements" to the much touted...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Government departments should not insist on seeking address of an RTI applicant if a post box number is being provided to them for communication, the Centre has said. The ministry of personnel has written to all central government ministries or departments, who act as public authorities mandated with providing information on RTI applications made to them, citing a judgement by Calcutta high court in this regard. "When the legislature thought...