-The Times of India   Taking note of frequent threats posed by certain government officials and those in power to rti activists in Manipur, a group of the rights defenders has formed an ad hoc committee - Transparency Initiatives Manipur (TIR) - with the primary objective to fight the menace. TIR convener and prominent rti activist Wahengbam Joykumar said the forum was formed recently after a meeting of rti activists and other individuals,...

-Kanglaonline.com   “The rti appellants are targeted by persons holding high office and those in power, we are targeted for requesting information from the government. We have decided to unite to withstand this oppression”, stated W Joykumar, convener of Transparency Initiatives Manipur, a forum of rti activist formed recently. Briefing media persons at its office, Joykumar said that the forum was set up after a meeting was held by rti activists and other...

-The Hindu   NCRB's 2009 report puts number of those abducted at 8,945 rtis filed by an NGO in 2009 show an average of 60,000 children are reported missing annually in the country. However, the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) annual report on Crime in India (2009) puts the number of abducted children at 8,945. Time lapse, insufficient information database and an ineffective tracking system minimises the missing children's chances of coming...

The Right to Information Act was the great white hope of Indian citizens who are consistently denied rightful information. Not only does it specify that most information in the public domain would be provided to citizens by right, but it also ensured that failure to do so by the bloated bureaucracy would result in penalties for erring officials. Trust the government, though, to subvert its own good intentions. The state government has...

-IANS   The Bihar State Information Commission (SIC) today launched avideo conferencing system for quicker hearing and disposal of complaints related to the Right To Information (rti) Act, officials said. State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)) A.K. Choudhary said the SIC will help dispose complaints against principal information officers for denying information under therti Act to people. Complaints from all over the state will be heard in Patna through video conferencing, saving...