Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge. Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...
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Amendments proposed, RTI rules likely to be more people-friendly by Anindo Dey
The withdrawal on the limitation of number of words when asking for information, restructuring of fees, halting provisions to withdraw an appeal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, are some of the amendments in the RTI rules that have been adopted by the Working Group on Transparency, Accountability and Governance under the National Advisory Council (NAC). These amendments are likely to be placed before a full house of the...
More »Prabhash Joshi and the RTI Movement by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh
TRIBUTE On May 5 it will be six months since Prabhat Joshi left us. Remembering that towering figure in the field of journalism on this occasion, we are carrying the following tribute which brings out yet another facet of his personality. It was written quite sometime ago but could not be published earlier due to unavoidable reasons. Prabhash Joshi was one of the most important journalists and thinkers of our times. He...
More »In Bihar, death for RTI activist who knew too much by Shoumojit Banerjee
When the government passed the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005, it should have added a statutory warning: exercising this right may be extremely injurious to health. Shashidhar Mishra of Begusarai, who was murdered by unknown assailants last Sunday, is the second RTI activist to be killed in a month for perhaps knowing too much. Attacks on RTI activists have emerged as a disturbing trend of late, especially in...
More »No back door amendments to RTI Act
The Union Minister for Personnel Prithviraj Chavan said that there was no question of bringing in an amendment in the Right to Information Act without consulting the people. Speaking to a delegation of National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (ncpri) at his office on Monday, Mr Chavan assured the delegates that a final decision on the nature of amendments has not been taken as yet. Chavan said that he...
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