The method of selection of Information Commissioners cries out for reform. FOR the Right to Information (RTI) Act to be successful, it is not enough if it has provisions that encourage information-sharing and punish those Information Officers who deny requests for information on specious grounds. Activists have found that while deciding appeal cases the degree of commitment of Information Commissioners to the Act's objectives matters more than the supportive provisions of...

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued show-cause notices to a former and an incumbent Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Delhi Government's Social Welfare Department observing that one of them appeared to have provided false information and the other had not supplied complete information within the stipulated 30 days to two RTI applicants seeking details on some officials booked in two corruption cases. The RTI applications were filed by two...

With the highest child malnutrition rate in the world, Madhya Pradesh needs to revise its food system if things are to be changed for the better. Officially, more than 56 per cent of ration cards are fake in the state, believed to have been issued by low-rank officials to cultivate benefits. The state food and civil supplies department is looking at Institutions like GAIN, a Swiss foundation created at a special session...

Officially, more than 56 per cent of ration cards are fake in the state, believed to have been issued by low-rank officials to cultivate benefits. The state food and civil supplies department is looking at Institutions like GAIN, a Swiss foundation created at a special session of United Nations General Assembly on Children in 2002, to ensure the supply of nutritious foods to the locals. As a solution to bribery at...

Muslims' enrolment at secondary level of education is less than that of the scheduled castes, a government survey has indicated. Giving this information in Rajya Sabha in a written reply, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that the report of 64th Round (2007-08) of National Sample Survey (NSS) indicates that Muslims' enrolment at secondary level is 10.2 per cent of the total enrolments. The survey said that the same for the scheduled...