Living overseas for education, employment or other reasons, Indians abroad find it difficult to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act due to the cumbersome fee-payment process.   'Even after five years of the RTI Act, Indian citizens living abroad are unable to use it effectively because of a cumbersome fee payment system. The Indian government has not framed any rules or procedures for the payment of RTI fee in foreign currency...

Faced with full demolition, the Adarsh housing society today said it would challenge the “mala fide” order in the high court even as it slammed environment minister Jairam Ramesh for his tearing hurry. “Right from day one, even before the show-cause notice was issued to the society, the minister has been saying the building would be demolished. It is a mala fide order. The minister seemed to be in a tearing...

Inspired by the RTI Act, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is all set to bring in a new legislation aimed at making government officials "accountable to the common man". The Janhit Guarantee Bill, to be unveiled by the BSP supremo on her 55th birthday tomorrow, promises timely delivery of information and documents like birth and death certificates and revenue records to the people, an official said. It also empowers the people to...

Even five years after the enactment of the pioneering Right to Information Act (RTI), penalties for delays in providing what has been sought under the law are imposed in less than 4% of the cases, an independent audit shows. The Act, which empowers citizens to demand information from the government, provides for the imposition of penalties by the Central or State Information Commission in case of delays without reasonable cause. The landmark...

The Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has asked the Planning Commission to include disclosure norms in all future public-private-partnership (PPP) projects undertaken by the Centre and the state governments. Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra has written to Planning Commission deputy-chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to incorporate disclosure norms, so that any project which has the participation of private firms and concessionaires come...