Seeking information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act in Karnataka has just got tougher, as the State government has found a Supreme Court order a convenient tool to delay providing information under the law. Gone are the days when the Public Information Officers (PIOs) were bound to provide information within 30 days as laid down in the RTI Act, 2005. Under the new scheme of things, it will take an...

-The Indian Express His vision for fighting corruption was a law that threatened to subvert every institution. Now Anna Hazare has couched his Republic Day appeal for yet another law in a woolly-headed — in fact, bizarre — rendition of Gandhianism. The urge for direct democracy that ran through his appeal for supreme power for gram sabhas is one that’s being increasingly iterated in various mobilisations for democratic reform. To this...

THE CHHATTISGARH Assembly will now consider an applicant’s intent before giving information under RTI. It might even refuse the application if it is convinced it has been made with mala fide intent. This clearly goes against the RTI Act, which says that an applicant requesting information shall not be required to give any reason. But can intent be ascertained without asking the reason? The Assembly enforced this rule last month by...

-The Times of India   Struggling to stay relevant amid signs of growing popular indifference, Team Anna chose Republic Day to advocate radical ideas like putting gram sabhas above the Lok Sabha and establishing a referendum commission along the lines of Election Commission.  In a video message, activist Anna Hazare also praised the Lokayukta bill of Uttarakhand, in what may be seen as a surrogate campaign for the BJP in the state. He...

While Jammu and Kashmir government makes tall claims about the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, on the contrary its departments are not furnishing the mandatory information to the State Information Commission (SIC), thereby affecting monitoring and reporting of the law. Informed sources told Greater Kashmir that majority of the administrative and field departments of the state are defaulters vis-a-vis submission of the quarterly and annual information to SIC on...