If the daily haggling to get work done at Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has left you frustrated, here is another shocker. An application under Right to Information (RTI) by a citizen Kanubhai Shah has revealed that SMC charges much more than any other civic body for even blank forms, that too more than its actual printing cost. Sample this: An unemployed person wanting to apply for job in SMC needs to buy...
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Abolish the Poverty Line by N Krishnaji
There is no case whatsoever to construct a single poverty line based on a calorie or expenditure norm; all such lines are arbitrary and do not take into account the different dimensions of poverty. It is far better to focus on disaggregated information on a variety of parameters – education, housing, clothing, health, etc – which can give us unambiguous information about the different facets of poverty over the course...
More »Ex-sarpanch gets life for killing RTI activist's kin by Bhaskar Mukherjee
FATEHABAD: An additional district and sessions court on Monday handed down life imprisonment to a former sarpanch of Chandrawal village, who allegedly mowed down daughter-in-law of a whistleblower RTI activist. Announcing the life sentence, additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) L N Jindal also slapped a fine of Rs 6,000 each on former sarpanch Dharambir Malik and driver Satbir Singh. Two whistleblowers Jagdish Kumar and Phool Singh of Chandrawal had sought information...
More »RTI exposes a dam that never was
-The Times of India LOHARDAGA: The Right to Information (RTI) Act has exposed a scam worth over Rs 32 lakh. The report received under RTI has been submitted as supportive evidence in the case that was lodged recently with the Senha police station (Case No. 13/12) under various sections of IPC for cheating the government and the public. The complainant, Ganesh Sahu, a social activist has accused three concerned engineers in the...
More »RTI, weak governance helping information escape from govt hands
-The Economic Times What's common between foggy movements of two army battalions, the government auditor's assessments of large notional losses to the exchequer and a letter from the army chief to the PM on his unit's preparedness for war? The information in each of these instances in the past six months was marked 'secret' in official files, but screamed its way to the public, forcing the government into damage-control mode. Information leaks in...
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