To dispose of pending Right To Information (RTI) appeals, state information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar will hold Special Appeal Disposal Programme at Ramnath Anandilal Podar Medical College (Ayurved) in Worli on January 4, 5 and 6. Till November 30, more than 19,000 appeals were pending with the state information commission office. Almost 2,200-2,500 new appeals are filed in the state every month. “As part of this programme, the appellant, public information officer (PIO)...
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Year of criticism, from the bench and against it by Krishnadas Rajagopal
Judicial activism was the key in many Supreme Court observations and judgments during 2011. 2011 CVC THOMAS: A three-judge bench led by CJI SH Kapadia declared “non est” — or nonexistent — the majority recommendation of a high-powered committee for P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner. The court ruled that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister’s recommendation amounted to “official arbitrariness”, coming in spite of the dissent of the third...
More »Two States and a water issue by Ramaswamy R Iyer
This article seeks to explain the elements of the raging controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam for the information of the general reader. There are four distinct aspects to this case, and these are elucidated below. (a) Extraordinary nature of the project: This is a project involving the eastward diversion of the waters of a west-flowing river, which has been celebrated as a gigantic feat of 19th century engineering. It was a...
More »Strong revival by Anindita Adhikari
In Jharkhand, an assertive populace is making sure that the dealers do not hijack the PDS. UNTIL a few years ago, the public distribution system (PDS) in Jharkhand appeared broken and beyond repair. The National Sample Survey data for 2004-05 suggest that more than 80 per cent of the PDS grain was sold in the open market at that time. A field survey in Ranchi and Dumka districts from June...
More »RTI hurdles aplenty by Manju V
From 1,865 in 2006, the backlog of applications at the Central Information Commission has swelled to above 22,700. Activists say the RTI Act will lose its bite in a few years if the present state of affairs continues. In September 2006, an RTI applicant sought a simple list of schemes approved under the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The government department concerned demanded Rs 16 lakh from him. He appealed against...
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