-The Telegraph Report was submitted to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on February 25 A Guwahati-based advocate Santanu Borthakur has taken the RTI route to get information about what the state government did with the Clause 6 report after it was submitted to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on February 25 by a committee constituted by the Union ministry of home affairs in July 2019. “I filed an application under the Right to...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

-ThePrint.in Chief Information Commission and its state counterparts have an unwritten rule about not penalising erring public information officers who discourage RTI applicants. Fifteen years after it came into effect, promising a new era in transparency in government functioning, India’s Right to Information, or RTI, Act is dying a slow but certain death, with the executive letting go of no chance to hasten the process. According to an estimate, between 40 and 60...

-The Hindu Proper implementation of the Right to Information Act is more crucial now than ever before Right to Information (RTI) applications seeking information pertaining to the PM CARES Fund have been stonewalled. No information exists on the official website of the Fund regarding the amount collected, names of donors, expenditure incurred, or details of beneficiaries. The trust deed of the fund chaired by the Prime Minister is not available for public...

-The Telegraph What transparency? Website does not specify contributions, spending The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to provide copies of the trust deed of the PM CARES Fund, besides those of the government orders, notifications and circulars related to its creation, saying the fund is not a public authority and is therefore exempt from the Right to Information (RTI) Act. “PM CARES Fund is not a public authority under the ambit of Section...