-The Greater Kashmir Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of institutional incompetence which is slowly rendering the Right to Information Act a "toothless tiger" in the state. "The manner in which hurdles are deliberately being created to avoid effective RTI implementation apparently points to only conclusion that the government and its administration are hell bent on avoiding answers as it fears that Genie may come out...
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In Chhattisgarh Assembly, RTI Applicants Face New Hurdles by Prakhar Jain
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...
More »Waiting for RTI replies just got longer by G Manjusainath
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...
More »Activists urge Chhattisgarh to reduce RTI fees
-The Times of India The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) expressed "dismay" over the Chhattisgarh assembly's decision to increase RTI application fees by 900% from Rs 50 to Rs 500. Fees per copy has been increased to Rs 15 and the inspection of documents to Rs 50. In a statement signed by Venkatesh Nayak, Nikhil Dey, Angela Rangad and Ramakrishna Raju, NCPRI said, "A move of this nature can...
More »Criminal trials by TK Rajalakshmi
Questionable drug trials on mentally challenged persons by doctors in Indore emphasise the need for strict enforcement of medical ethics. IN what appears to be a page out of Robin Cook's medical thriller, government and private doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, reportedly carried out clinical trials of various medicines on some 233 patients who had gone to them seeking psychiatric treatment. As in Cook's famous book Coma, in which a medical...
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