In violation of Supreme Court directions, 28 persons are being kept in solitary confinement in various jails all over the country. Information under Right to Information (RTI) Act obtained by Navkiran Singh, a lawyer practising in Punjab and Haryana High Court, reveals that West Bengal has the maximum number of prisoners kept ‘illegally’ in solitary confinement. While West Bengal has 16 such prisoners, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have three each. As per...

Information on illegal structures in their neighbourhood topped the list of queries asked by citizens, an analysis of RTI queries at an awareness camp showed. Citizens expressed concern at the three-day RTI camp organized by Mahiti Adhikar Manch and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at Parel that concluded on Friday. "A majority of the 175 participants said that they wanted to file RTI queries related to unauthorized changes made in...

A group of activists has raised concerns over the government’s proposed amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, saying they could limit the scope of the landmark legislation. The activists claimed that some of the proposed changes were tailor made for officials to reject RTI queries, which could pave the way for pressure tactics against RTI applicants. “The government is trying to insert a provision that would allow an applicant...

An RTI Activist Monday filed a complaint alleging that a police official at the behest of the state home minister had threatened him and other activists to delete a crucial name 'Roy' from his criminal complaint against officials and politicians involved in the drug mafia nexus case. Kashinath Shetye, who has in the past succeeded in using the RTI Act to expose systemic corruption over the last two years, in his...

The number of Right to Information (RTI) applications received by the Pune Municipal Corporation has increased from 6,793 in 2009 to 10,552 in 2010, in spite of the civic body providing information to citizens every Monday from 3 to 5 pm. While civic officials cited the increased awareness about the RTI Act among citizens as reason for the rising number of applications, activists said that the Monday scheme has not been...