As more and more scams come tumbling out of the closet by the day, courtesy the Right to Information (RTI), the Maharashtra government has made a move to amend RTI rules. As per a notification, dated January 16, which is floating around on emails, an applicant can ask questions only on a single subject matter and his application cannot exceed 150 words. Besides, during inspection, a person can carry only a...

-The Times of India It was UPA 1's winning mantra. But the Rs 33,000 crore a year rural job guarantee scheme may be floundering with the government admitting the flagship programme suffers from delayed payments, poor awareness, lack of durable assets, faulty job cards and muster rolls. The finance ministry has echoed some of the major criticisms of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act listing endemic "lack of awareness about...

The Judiciary is the third branch of government. As with the Executive and Legislature, the public has a right to see and know and understand the functioning of this branch. That is why India, like every other democracy, has embraced the concept of open court proceedings and trials, except in those situations where, for security or other compelling reasons, in camera hearings are required. In the Mirajkar case ( Naresh Shridhar...

-The Times of India   Terming exemptions to the RTI Act introduced through the proposed Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) bill as "regressive", information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi and legal luminary Fali Nariman have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reconsider the amendments in the interest of transparency. Nariman said the amendments were "unnecessary" and against the letter and spirit of the Act. "I am distressed to hear that the government of India proposes...

-PTI Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the proposed move to exempt nuclear regulatory bodies from the ambit of the Right To Information Act. In his letter to the PM, Gandhi opposed the proposals in the Nuclear Safety Regulation Act (NSRA) relating to introduction of new exemption clause in the RTI Act which will prohibit disclosure of nuclear energy and radiation issues under the transparency...