It took years of struggle, harassment, sweat and courage to get the Right to Information Act (2005) in place. Now, it looks like the government is hell bent on frustrating the purpose of this legislation. Yesterday, the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly secretariat notified new rules that bar the transfer of applications to multiple authorities, limit the subjects and seeks additional fees for first appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act....

For Sonia Gandhi, the change could not have been more dramatic. Just last year, her contribution in pushing for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was hailed as the single largest reason for the fresh mandate received by a government avowedly dedicated to the aam aadmi. Yet, last week, Gandhi, as chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) was reduced to lodging a complaint with Prime Minister...

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is considering changes to the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep the chief justice of the Supreme Court out of its ambit, prompting protests against the move by those who see it as a dilution of the law. “The proposal includes...safeguarding the sensitivity of the office of the chief justice of India,” Prithviraj Chavan, outgoing minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions,...

The Mumbai Collector had, in a letter to the Defence Estates Officer, Mumbai Circle, dated July 12, 2004, denied that the government of Maharashtra allotted any land to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Colaba. Records obtained using the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM), which were released on Monday by Ms. Medha Patkar, Simpreet Singh and other activists, show that the Collector accorded...

Former chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan on Friday said the Right To Information (RTI) Act "was grossly misused" and needed amending to prevent the misuse. "It is time for introspection on the five-year-old RTI Act. It is grossly misused. Most of the applicants are applying the RTI not for public good, but for misuse," Balakrishnan said at a seminar on "RTI-Key to good governance", organised by the Institute of Secretariat...