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)...

-PTI The agriculture sector performed exceedingly well in 2011, with record grain production of over 240 million tonnes giving enough leeway for the government to lift a ban on exports of wheat and non-basmati rice and introduce the food security bill in Parliament. Farmers’ long-standing demand for crop loans at a 4% rate of interest was met during the year, although with a rider that the facility would be available to...

A survey in nine States shows that they have quietly revived and expanded their public distribution system. AT a time when the Union Cabinet cleared the draft of the national food security Bill after dilly-dallying over it comes a compelling piece of information: many State governments have quietly revived and expanded the public distribution system in their States. That, at any rate, is one of the main findings of a...

-The Deccan Chronicle Henceforth if any government agency denies information under Right to Information Act (RTI), applicants need not wait for years for the intervention of the state information commission. Instead they can approach the district consumer disputes redressal forum. In a land mark judgment, II additional district consumer disputes redressal forum, of the city of Seshadripu ram has ruled that RTI applicants are also consumers and it is the responsibility...

The implementation of the ‘100 days work' scheme in West Bengal had become a poll issue during the last parliamentary and assembly elections as had some other Centrally-funded rural development projects. But despite a change in government in the State, little seems to have changed on that front ultimately leading to a somewhat hurried shunting out of a Minister from his Department. The decision taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to...