-The Hindustan Times   Different Central government departments have different interpretations of the transparency law, Right To Information, when it came to disclosing information. While some government departments have proactively disclosed the information, others have denied similar information citing prohibitory clauses of the RTI law. This reporter had filed a RTI application with the Cabinet Secretariat seeking copies of the minutes of the Group of Ministers and Empowered Group of Ministers constituted since June...

-The Hindu The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the Principal Secretary, Primary Education Department, to be present in court on January 10 as it was not satisfied with the reply given by the government counsel regarding the action-taken report that was to be submitted to the court on providing toilets and drinking water facility in all government schools in the State. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice...

-The Times of India   Despite stringent directives from the central and state government to make it easy for applicants to obtain information under Right to Information Act (RTI) Act, officials in many Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) office continue to take applications lightly. Dilly-dally tactics and indifferent treatment to applicants is described as natural in NMC. The two most common problems being created by officials are refusal to accept applications by directing...

-The Times of India   The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), which is under a cloud over irregularities in recruitments over the past couple of months, has now extended its dubious streak of not being transparent enough. It has reportedly denied information to an RTI petition on the recruitment of assistant directors of the Town and Country Planning department despite two orders from the high court and two directions from the...

To dispose of pending Right To Information (RTI) appeals, state information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar will hold Special Appeal Disposal Programme at Ramnath Anandilal Podar Medical College (Ayurved) in Worli on January 4, 5 and 6. Till November 30, more than 19,000 appeals were pending with the state information commission office. Almost 2,200-2,500 new appeals are filed in the state every month. “As part of this programme, the appellant, public information officer (PIO)...