The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Beyond enquiry by V Venkatesan
The Central government exempts the CBI from the Right To Information Act's purview without seeking Parliament's approval. THE Right to Information Act, 2005, originally exempted 18 public authorities under the Central government from disclosure of information. Section 24 of the Act provided this exemption to intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule of the Act, and permitted the Central government to amend the Schedule, by notification in the...
More »Licence to loot by Ravi Sharma
A host of steel-manufacturing units are keen to set up plants in Karnataka, and all want captive mines. SOUTH KOREA'S Posco is not the only steel-maker keen to do business in Karnataka. The State's estimated 9,000 million tonnes of good-quality iron ore reserves, which is the second largest in India, the State government's assurances on a smooth land acquisition process, the availability of water and the promise of speedy regulatory clearances...
More »HC stays CIC order to Rashtrapati Bhawan on Emergency papers
-The Times of India The Delhi high court on Tuesday stayed a Central Information Commission (CIC) order directing Rashtrapati Bhawan to disclose all the documents, including the communication of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on the declaration of the Emergency in 1975. Terming the documents as "classified and privileged", the Central Public Information Officer of Rashtrapati Bhawan challenged the CIC order, saying the President's Secretariat is not liable to disclose...
More »Public utilities elude the RTI net. The cloak of privacy protects companies by Shonali Ghosal
WITH GOVERNMENT agencies like the CBI, NIA and NATGRID having escaped the RTI scanner, publicprivate ventures too are trying to slink away even as activists rally to include them under the Act. After the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled on 30 May that Mumbai International Airport (Private) Limited (MIAL) is a public authority, the company was set to be the first Public- private Partnership (PPP) to be brought under RTI....
More »