-The Hindu Mumbai: Ex-Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi says a transparent procedure should be followed in the selection process. Alarmed at speculation that Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi could be appointed Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission, RTI activist and former CIC Shailesh Gandhi on Thursday shot off a letter to the Centre objecting to the appointment. In a letter to Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, Mr. Gandhi said: “There are news reports...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Nearly five dozen former parliamentarians owe close to Rs 1 crore as rental charges for overstaying in government accommodation long after leaving office, a Right to Information (RTI) reply has revealed. While former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, one-time India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin and actress Jaya Pradha are among the defaulters, former Rajya Sabha member Gireesh Kumar tops the list as he owes the...

-The Hindu Nauroti Devi, who never went to a school, uses a computer for village administration. VISAKHAPATNAM: Nauroti would hardly draw any attention from a passerby except maybe her traditional pallu over the head might draw a curious stare in South India. A Dalit who never went to school, after being elected sarpanch of Harmada village in Kishangarh Tehsil in Ajmer district of Rajasthan, she trained the government employee panchayat secretary on how...

-The Hindu Now is a good time to debate the criteria which enables the government to keep secrets instead of making everything public. On January 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered on his promise and released 100 files on Subhas Chandra Bose in the presence of the freedom fighter’s family, which has persisted with its demand for declassifying all documents that could shed light on his mysterious disappearance and probable death in...

-The Hindu Kolkata: For all the claims of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government about the development of minorities in West Bengal, statistics tell a different story. Data revealed by a query under the Right to Information Act (RTI) Act 2005 shows that the number of Muslims employed with the Kolkata Police has increased only by 0.3 per cent in the past eight years, of which the TMC had been at the helm...