The right to information act (RTI) which is hailed as a great leap forward in the direction of transparency in governance is under serious threat. The UPA government that showcased the historical act as one of its achievements in the last Lok Sabha elections now seems to be bowing down to the system’s high and mighty by proposing amendments which seem designed to take the sting out of the people’s...
More »SEARCH RESULT
MCD tops in corruption cases, followed by Delhi Govt and DDA
Municipal Corporation of Delhi has topped the corruption chart with about 4,300 cases and is followed by Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Police. There are about 457 corruption related cases against the Delhi government employees including 137 from Delhi Jal Board (DJB). It is followed by DDA and Delhi Police where 305 and 133 officials respectively were facing corruption cases. Interestingly, 18 senior DDA officials have retired without...
More »Two senior officers of the district administration in Bihar fined for contravening the RTI Act
RTI advocators in Bihar have succeeded in prevailing upon the State Information Commission to impose penalties under The Right to Information Act (RTI Act) on two senior officers of the Madhubani district administration. On 11th September, 2009 the Bihar Information Commission imposed the maximum penalty permissible under the RTI Act on the Additional District Collector (Apar-Samaharta) and the Circle Officer (Anchal Adhikari) for repeated contraventions of the RTI Act. The Commission...
More »Blowing The Whistle by Prashant Bhushan, VK Shunglu, Arvind Kejriwal, Madhu Bhaduri
The CVC has failed to be an institutional bulwark against corruption. The reason? Wrong appointments. It's time to fix the methodology of these appointments and make them transparent. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was set up as a department of the government of India in the 1960s. It was functioning as an organization to advise government on all matters relating to corruption in public services and lack of integrity vis-à-vis public...
More »Farm Suicides
KEY TRENDS • Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in...
More »