MUMBAI: At a time when there is intense debate on changes introduced by the state governmentto the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the state information commission has recommended curbs on the number of appeals a person can file.  Arguing that multiple appeals and applications filed by the same individuals were hampering disposal of the RTI appeals and delaying discharge of information, acting State Information Commissioner Bhaskar Patil has asked the government...

BHOPAL: The state government move to appoint chief information commissioner (CIC) by the end of April may hit a roadblock with the Supreme Court stating Friday that it would lay down guidelines to ensure that posts of information commissioners at the centre and state commissions do not become "property of a political set-up". The post of state's CIC is lying vacant following the retirement of P P Tiwari on March 26...

-The Times of India   YAVATMAL: Information released under right to information (RTI) has revealed that the state government has paid Rs 2.83 crore to acquire land distributed to tribals and landless labourers under the Bhoodan movement to rehabilitate Pahur villagers displaced due to Bembla River Irrigation Project. Concerns are now being expressed that some government officials pocketed this compensation along with five land owners by forging documents and sale deeds. Sarpanch Ainuddin...

Health ministry instead plans to roll out an integrated national health survey; experts question decision   The Union government has decided to discontinue the country’s most reliable and widely tracked health survey, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the fourth round of which was to be conducted in 2012-13, in a move that has been criticized by development experts. The ministry of health and family welfare is instead planning to roll out an...

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested two senior bureaucrats-former Mumbai civic chief Jairaj Phatak and former Maharashtra information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari-in connection with the Adarsh housing society scam, taking the tally of people taken into custody to nine. The central agency has listed 14 people, including former chief minister Ashok Chavan, as accused in its first information report filed last January. Interrogations of two of the society's arrested promoters,...