The RTI Act needs strengthening, but activists oppose the government's proposals as they suspect its intentions. AN Act is usually amended to address certain concerns that come up during its implementation. However, the beneficiaries of the Right to Information Act, 2005, oppose any amendment to the Act, because they suspect the government's intentions. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) admitted to considering 11 amendments to the Act in a letter to...

The method of selection of Information Commissioners cries out for reform. FOR the Right to Information (RTI) Act to be successful, it is not enough if it has provisions that encourage information-sharing and punish those Information Officers who deny requests for information on specious grounds. Activists have found that while deciding appeal cases the degree of commitment of Information Commissioners to the Act's objectives matters more than the supportive provisions of...

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued show-cause notices to a former and an incumbent Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Delhi Government's Social Welfare Department observing that one of them appeared to have provided false information and the other had not supplied complete information within the stipulated 30 days to two RTI applicants seeking details on some officials booked in two corruption cases. The RTI applications were filed by two...

Bolangir district in Orissa, facing drought conditions since 1965, sees an annual mass migration of farmers to other States in search of work. SURESH GOHIR of Bhotapada village in the backward Bolangir district of Orissa consumed pesticide two years ago after his paddy crop failed. He survived the suicide attempt but found life doubly difficult as debt had mounted. Suresh was forced to migrate to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in search of...

The spotlight on the long-pending amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, was back when a Congress delegation, led by general secretaries Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh, extracted a promise from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday that he would bring a Bill to amend the Act in the winter session of Parliament. Emerging from a meeting in Parliament House, Mr. Digvijay Singh said: “The Uttar Pradesh government is misusing the...