-The Indian Express MPs must not run down a law that promises a more informed citizenry The Right to Information (RTI) Act has undoubtedly been a most empowering legislation for citizens. The law has initiated the vital task of redistributing power in a democratic framework. It is perhaps this paradigm shift in the locus of power that has resulted in consistent efforts by the powerful to denigrate it. The latest attack on...

-The Times of India Mangaluru: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) have urged Karnataka government to take stringent action against the killers of city-based RTI activist Vinayak Panduranga Baliga. Vinayak, who was actively involved in RTI movement, was murdered near his house in the city on March 21. Even as the 13th day rituals of Vinayak was being observed on Saturday, RTI activist and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: RTI activists led by Aruna Roy will boycott PM Narendra Modi's inaugural speech at the Central Information Commission's annual convention on Friday to protest against the exclusion of several RTI users and activists from the event citing security concerns. Only a handful of activists including Nikhil Dey, Lokesh Batra, Venkatesh Nayak, Anjali Bhardwaj and Shekhar Singh have been invited for the convention. Traditionally, civil society representatives...

Due to delay in the appointment of Chief Information Commissioner, the number of pending cases at the Central Information Commission (CIC) have gone up by nearly 1/3rd during the last 9 months. As per information furnished by the website of CIC (accessed on 29 May, 2015), the number of pending cases for disposal was 29,937 as on 22 August 2014, which after 9 months increased to 39,464 as on 22 May,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a blow to transparency, the PMO has decided to block public access to the wealth declarations made by ministers. The details of assets and liabilities of the union council of ministers has been available online since 2010. However, the details are now password protected and can only be accessed by the authorized personnel. In fact information on assets and liabilities of the present council of...