Kheema Ram, a 40-year-old farmer from Rajasthan who exposed a number of corrupt practices through his more than 350 RTI applications is against any amendments in the Act. Ram, hailing from Rajsamund district, travelled all the way to Delhi along with fellow villagers on Saturday to protest against the proposed amendments in the RTI Act which may take out some categories of information from the Act's ambit. "The discussed amendments...

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday reiterated his government’s commitment to ensuring better implementation of the Right to Information Act and asked the officials to take “firm steps” to enforce compliance with the statutory provisions. Presiding over a review meeting on the RTI Act at the State Secretariat here, Mr. Gehlot said a relatively better implementation of the law in Rajasthan had been appreciated all over the country. However,...

Several civil society organizations and citizens who believe that a section of government and bureaucracy should not be allowed to dilute the right to information (RTI), staged a daylong protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi today (November 14, 2009) against the attempts to dilute the historical Act. (See the press release below for details) The civil society organizations, led by the National Council for the Peoples’ Right to Information...

For a man who will inherit vast tracts of fertile farmland in Punjab, India's grain bowl, Jaswinder Singh made what seemed to him a logical career move -- he took a job with a telecoms company in New Delhi. "I can't go back to the village after an M.B.A. Delhi has more money, better quality of life. The job is more satisfying, and you don't depend on the weather or...

AMIT KUMAR must be one of the few bankers in the world turning away depositors. The manager of a village bank in the Indian state of Rajasthan, he was reluctant to take a cheque for 1m rupees ($21,200) from the elected head of the village, or sarpanch. The cheque was meant to pay hundreds of villagers for their work under India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees 100...