Information obtained under Right To Information Act is increasingly becoming the basis of public interest petitions seeking judicial redress of grievances. The Supreme Court on Monday disapproved of this modus operandi and said from now, it would not entertain PILssolely based on rti information. "Petitioners banking on information obtained through rti Act must approach the concerned ministry, bring the facts to its notice and demand justice. If the ministry does not...

-The Pioneer   Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Monday that though the decision-making process had slowed down after the rti Act came into effect, the legislation had indeed facilitated transparency in governance. “Everybody has become extremely cautious (because of the rti Act). There is no doubt that the decision-making has slowed down. In that transition period, we are moving towards much more transparent governance which will pay us dividends in future,”...

While Rahul Gandhi spoke of a woman delivering a baby once a week and 52 times a year in Uttar Pradesh according to the official record of the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) on Monday, Youth Congress men in Lucknow were busy preparing an exhibition of glaring cases of corruption in the scheme at their state office.   The exhibition, based on an audit conducted in 12 blocks, is expected to start on...

Wajahat Habibullah, chairperson, National Commission for Minorities, speaks to Kavita Chowdhury on reservation for Muslims, the rti Act and the controversy over withdrawal of AFSPA in Kashmir. You had recently visited Rajasthan. In Bharatpur district’s Gopalgarh village, some members of the minority community, Mev Muslims, were killed and the state administration was accused of mishandling the matter. What is your view? A communal riot is an unpardonable crime. The state government has taken...

In this Idea Exchange moderated by Senior Editor Archna Shukla, I&B minister Ambika Soni speaks about self-regulation by the media, empowering the Press Council of India and the Congress party’s stand on corruption Archna Shukla: There is a growing perception that the government is unhappy with media criticism. The editor of a leading English daily publicly claimed that government advertisements have been stopped to his publication. Is the government being vindictive? I have...