-The Hindu   Aruna Roy writes to PM The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has sought a new provision in the government's draft Citizen's Right to Grievances Redress Bill, 2011, to compensate a complainant for entitlements wrongly denied or delayed. The government's draft empowers the independent appellate authority to penalise for denial or delay in entitlements but does not provide for compensating a complainant. Rather than have the Grievance Redress as part...

-The Times of India   The Central Information Commission has directed the external affairs ministry to comply with the norms of statutory suo-moto disclosures to be made under the Right to Information Act.  The move comes following a complaint that some information given on the ministry's website under Section 4 of the rti Act, which relates to proactive disclosures by a public authority, was not complete and comprehensive.  Complainant Saurabh Sharma alleged that the...

An independent study says some 250 thermal power projects that have got clearances may be meant just to grab land and water resources. THERE have been a growing number of headlines that speak of an energy crisis and the energy deficit in India in the last few years. The disparities in the demand-supply scenario, the increasing prospects of disruptions in the global supply of fuel and the consequent results of higher...

-DNA   Mehboob Senior, once considered the right-hand man of slain gangster Abdul Latif, was arrested by the Gujarat University police on Monday for threatening riot witness and activist Nadeem Saiyed earlier this year. Later, Saiyed was hacked to death in Juhapura on November 5. Police inspector SJ Vaghasiya of Gujarat university police station told DNA that Senior was arrested in connection with a case lodged by Saiyed on July 3 this year,...

-The Deccan Herald   The governor is a public authority and cannot claim immunity from the Right to Information Act (rti) 2005, the Bombay High Court ruled on Monday. The judgment pronounced via video-conferencing between Justice D G Karnik sitting in Mumbai and Justice F M Reis in Panaji brings to an end a year-long stand-off between an activist lawyer and the Goa Raj Bhavan over his application for documents under rti. In December...