-The Hindu Any move to amend the RTI Act must involve public consultation The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)government has struck another blow against transparency and accountability. Its already negative track record — that has been marked by an unwillingness to operationalise the Lok Pal, the Whistleblowers Act and the Grievance Redress law — has taken another step backwards if one is to go by a single line in item 14 in the...
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The Great Transparency 'Jumla'
-Newsclick.in Electoral bonds are neither 'transparent' nor 'anonymous'. In the latest revelation, file notings of the Election Commission of India (ECI) have showed that it had decided against uploading a letter – which talked about its reservations regarding the Finance Act, 2017 and introduction of the Electoral bonds – on their website. The notings have been disclosed through a response to an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) filed by...
More »Aruna Roy, social activist and Magsaysay Award winner, interviewed by G Sampath
-The Hindu The social activist whose new book on the RTI is just out, worries about the doublespeak in politics today, where rhetoric and substance never match The past couple of months have been hectic for Aruna Roy. The social activist and Magsaysay Award winner has been travelling across the country to promote her book, The RTI Story: Power to the People, which came out in April. After waiting more than a...
More »No demand for Electoral bonds of smaller denomination -Rakesh Dubbudu
-Factly.in There was an intense debate around the introduction of Electoral bonds by the government. Data obtained from SBI reveals that there is hardly any demand for Electoral bonds of smaller denomination while 99.9% of bonds sold in terms of amount are of Rs 10 lakh & Rs 1 crore denomination. The Electoral bonds were first announced in the 2017-18 budget and the scheme was subsequently notified in January 2018. Factly...
More »Secularism at risk as RTI Act weakens, says Aruna Roy
-The Hindu ‘Information Commissioners are not being appointed’ Hyderabad: Releasing her RTI Story Power to The People in the city, activist Aruna Roy, who led the movement for getting the legislation in place, said citizens were moving towards a more challenging and non-transparent environment. “This government has consolidated opaqueness. It has systematically weakened the RTI Act by granting exemptions to CBI and other agencies on security grounds. Electoral bonds are a case in...
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