-The Telegraph Call to Kovind to back law he helped draft New Delhi: Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has started an online petition to persuade President Ram Nath Kovind to stand by the transparency law he helped draft as a member of a parliamentary standing committee in 2004. While the petition, started on Friday, is finding traction, more such letters are being planned to appeal to the President’s conscience so that he...
More »SEARCH RESULT
'RTI Bill Shrouded in Secrecy, How Will it Enhance Transparency?' Ask Former CICs -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
-TheWire.in Former commissioners urged citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact people's right to know. New Delhi: A number of former information commissioners came forward on Wednesday to criticise the attempts by the Narendra Modi government to rush the RTI Amendment Bill, 2019, through the parliament without following a proper consultation process. They also cautioned that, if passed, the amendment would weaken the transparency law – rated...
More »To defend Modi govt's RTI Act changes, BJP released a 'factsheet'. It doesn't have much facts -Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri
-ThePrint.in Modi government’s proposed amendments to one of India’s most powerful laws will reduce autonomous information commissions to 'caged parrots'. India’s Right to Information Act is under attack. Surreptitiously, and without any public consultation, the Narendra Modi government introduced a bill in Parliament that aims to undermine the independence of information commissions – the final adjudicators under the RTI law. The bill was passed on 22 July by the Lok Sabha, where...
More »RTI Bill 2019: Undermining autonomy of information commissions and transparency in governance -Prasanna Mohanty
-IndiaToday.in The amendment proposes to reduce the status of information commissioners and fix their term of office from five years or until the age of 65 years at present. New Delhi: After an aborted attempt in 2018, the central government proposes to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005 (RTI Act) to change the term of office and service conditions the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioner (IC) at the...
More »Privacy Breach? Transport Ministry Selling Driving License, Vehicle Registration Data To Commercial Firms -Siddhartha Mishra
-Outlook The government got Rs 65 crore by selling data of approximately 25 crore vehicle registrations and 15 crore driving licences. However, is selling this data legal? Is the data actually ‘public’? Isn't it intrusion on privacy? On July 8, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari responded to an unstarred question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai on details of data sold by the government “by providing access...
More »