-PTI A sum of over Rs. 642 crore has been incurred on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's air travels abroad in the last nine years. This information has been made public by the PMO as part of obligations under the mandatory proactive disclosure clause of the Right to Information Act. The information reveals that Singh undertook 67 travels since 2004 when he took over as PM, of which bills of five have not been...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Breaking ranks with the other parties, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday said it favoured a mechanism of checks and balances for transparency in the functioning of the political parties. The SP was referring to the June 3, 2013, ruling of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) that says political parties come under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Almost all national parties have opposed the CIC ruling. National...

-The Economic Times The information commissioner's order asking that stringent disclosure norms prevail on political parties is a welcome move. Transparency with regard to political parties, especially when it concerns funding, is extremely important in a democracy as this is where political corruption begins. In the past, there have been allegations of quid pro quo between big corporate houses, who fund parties in elections, and policy changes effected to suit them. Some...

-The Indian Express Bringing political parties under RTI is a bad, and anti-political, idea In a radical ruling, the Chief Information Commissioner has decided that political parties should be open to scrutiny under the right to information. Six national parties have been asked to appoint officers to handle requests, and proactively share information about their finances and voluntary contributions, including donor information. The logic is that parties get public land and offices,...

-Press Release of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) On 3rd of June 2013, a full bench of Central Information Commission (CIC) comprising of Chief Information Commissioner Shri. Satyananda Mishra and Information Commissioners Shri. M.L. Sharma and Smt. Annapurna Dixit gave a landmark judgment where they ruled in favor of bringing Political Parties under the ambit of Right to Information Act (RTI). In October 2010, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed RTIs...