-The Hindu The RTI Act Amendment Bill must be junked The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has empowered millions of Indians to question governments and hold public functionaries accountable. Of the nearly six million RTI applications filed every year in the country, a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who seek information about their basic rights and entitlements, like rations, pensions and health facilities. The use of...
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Draft data-protection bill proposes offline verification for Aadhaar; strengthens UIDAI and weakens RTI provisions -Arshu John
-CaravanMagazine.in Nearly a year ago, the government of India constituted a committee of experts chaired by the former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna to draft a data-protection law for India. Almost immediately, the committee became mired in controversy—it was first criticised for the lack of civil-society representatives among its members, and subsequently for the opacity of its proceedings, and its inefficient public consultation on the data-protection framework. In recent months, the...
More »The People of India Have Protected Their Right to Information Once Again -M Sridhar Acharyulu
-TheWire.in The Centre's decision to defer the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018 – after protests from the public and the opposition – is temporary good news. Sub-section (5) of Section 13 of the Right to Information Act provided that the salaries and allowance and other terms and conditions of service of the chief information commissioner and information commissioners shall be same as that of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners,...
More »Opposition irked over move to amend RTI act, may raise it on day 1 of monsoon session -Nidhi Sharma
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government’s move to introduce a new bill to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the monsoon session of Parliament has riled the Opposition parties and social rights activists. Opposition MPs are planning to raise the issue on the first day of the session. The government has not put the draft amendment bill in the public domain yet. In Parliament bulletin on “government business expected...
More »Downgrading the Status of Chief Information Commissioner: Proposed Amendments to RTI Act -M Sridhar Acharyulu
-Economic and Political Weekly The right to information, much like the right to vote, is rooted in the same fundamental right, with the offices of the chief information commissioner and the chief election commissioner, respectively, operating at the same level of autonomy, towards the enforcement of these rights. The proposed amendments to the Right to Information Act, which reportedly seek to downgrade the status of the chief information commissioner and information...
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