-The Hindu Hearings suspended in Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan A quick survey of the fallout of the Supreme Court order directing that State Information Commissions “henceforth” work on benches of two members each — one of them a ‘judicial member’ and the other an ‘expert member’ — has shown that work in some SICs hearing appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has ground to a halt. Other SICs found no barrier to...
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Lessons from Melghat’s health crisis-Pramit Bhattacharya
-Live Mint At a time when India plans a multi-pronged attack on malnutrition in 200 high-burden districts, it will pay to examine the cracks in state institutions that have led to past failures and can still derail well-intentioned plans. Melghat, a tribal corner in the northeastern fringes of India’s richest state—Maharashtra—is an apt example of almost everything that has gone wrong in India’s response to malnutrition and child deaths. Every 14th child dies...
More »Judicial delay may become a thing of the past by NR Madhava Menon
The National Mission to improve the delivery of justice is at work. In October 2009, on the basis of a Vision Document adopted at a judicial conference in New Delhi, the Government of India approved in principle a National Mission to reduce pendency and delays in the judicial system and enhance accountability through structural changes, higher performance standards and capacity-building. Many past attempts to achieve the goals did not yield results...
More »One man against a corrupt state system by Brijesh Pandey
WHEN ITANAGAR businessman and chairman of the Sango Lamte Foundation Payi Gyadi embarked on his crusade against dishonesty, he did not bargain for this. Four FIRs, one attempt to frame him by planting weapons in his car, and countless ‘offers’ to reach a ‘compromise or die’. His crime: exposing that the current Arunachal Pradesh Health Minister Atum Welly’s son and daughter had got government jobs based on fake certificates. It all...
More »RTI exposes nepotism in Gujarat courts by Meghdoot Sharon
-IBN An RTI query has revealed major irregularities in the appointment of clerical staff in a district court in Gujarat, with most of them being relatives of judges. Four years after 80 vacancies for stenographers, clerks and peons were filled up, questions are being raised over the transparency in which these appointments were made. Response to an application filed by RTI activist Janki Prasad Shah revealed that 32 of the total...
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