"It is wrong to say that we will become a super cabinet. We are here to get the Indian bureaucracy to see reason to carry forward social projects related to areas like health, food, agriculture speedily and make sure that people like (Planning Commission deputy chairman) Montek Singh Ahluwalia gets the correct picture and figures on social issues," a member of the National Advisory Council told rediff.com. The member argued...
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Wanted: RTI officers, babus needn’t apply by Himanshi Dhawan
Exasperated with the government’s attempt to pack in retired bureaucrats as information commissioners, civil society has decided to take matters into its own hands. ‘Apply to be an information commissioner’ is a campaign they have launched to stir people to action and put pressure on the government to considering non-bureaucrats for the job. The campaign — mainly spreading through online RTI forums and by word-of-mouth — took off a month...
More »Saving the right to information miracle by Vidya Subrahmaniam
The RTI juggernaut has begun to roll over Indian babudom. Let us not turn the clock back. Over the past week, there have been reports that the Prime Minister's Office, responding to Sonia Gandhi's muscular intervention, is backing off on the dreaded amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that the amendments scare has never been too far away. It resurfaced as recently...
More »Proposed RTI changes worry activists
In a letter to an RTI activist, the Department of Personnel and Training (Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions) has admitted to considering about a dozen amendments to the Right to Information Act, with the assurance that any amendment “will be made only after consultation with the stakeholders.” The letter to Subhash Chandra Agrawal is upfront about at least two of the amendments: exempting the office of the Chief Justice...
More »Govt to HC: Will hold camps to inform Games site workers about their rights, wages, benefits by Utkarsh Anand
With the Delhi High Court keeping an eye on violation of labour laws at Commonwealth Games construction sites, the Delhi government has decided to approach the workers by organising awareness camps. These camps will be organised between May 1 and 7 at all nine districts of the city, the court was told on Wednesday. The workers would be told about their rights relating to wages, safety measures and other beneficial...
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