-The Hindu Telangana’s experience is instructive The institutionalisation of “social audits” to ensure implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been challenging. Since being included in the 2005 Act at the behest of social movements, social audits have been ineffective in most parts of the country due to government indifference. So far, 26 States have created social audit units (SAUs), but the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) detailed guidelines...
More »SEARCH RESULT
RTI lock off travel details
-PTI New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has directed the Bureau of Immigration, an agency exempted from RTI Act disclosures, to give a person details of his travel as he needed it for defence in penal proceedings that landed him in jail. The CIC underlined that any impediment to a person's self-defence would be a breach of human rights. The case pertains to RTI applicant M. Dinesh, who had sought information related to...
More »Transparency test for symbol of trust -R Balaji
-The Telegraph SC refuses to give copy of order forming bench, MPs withdraw petition on Chief Justice New Delhi: A Transparency test was staring at the Supreme Court after a constitution bench refused on Tuesday to entertain a persistent plea for a copy of an order through which the same bench had been formed to look into a plea linked to the Chief Justice of India. Following the court's reluctance to furnish the...
More »How RTI Act is dying a slow death in India -Chetan Chauhan
-Hindustan Times A 6% fall between 2015-16 and 2016-17 was reported in RTI applications filed with the 1,950 public authorities of the Central government, which receives maximum information applications followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. The right to information law meant to empower Indians and bring Transparency in governance appeared to be losing steam with the number of queries going down mainly because of stone-walling of information by officials and slow disposal of...
More »MGNREGA: Honest labour's love lost as government makes payment process complex -Sakina Dhorajiwala
-The Economic Times In over a decade, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been instrumental in providing employment to rural households. One of its key provisions is that once the work week is completed, the worker must be paid within 15 days. Millions depend on the timely payment of these wages. The payments process has made many strides in the last decade, from cash payments to wages being...
More »