Ignoring protests by some RTI Activists, Governor K Sankaranarayanan cleared the appointment of Vilas Patil as the state’s Chief Information Commissioner. Patil will be administered the oath of office at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. This comes in the face of RTI Activists as well as veteran Activist Anna Hazare opposing the appointments of CIC and other information commissioners alleging that the appointments were not transparent. Incensed, Activists from across the city...

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has lambasted chief minister Ashok Chavan and deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal over the recent selection of the four information commissioners. Calling the selection, ``improper and unfortunate'', Hazare has instructed the duo in a letter on Monday to rectify the situation. Chavan, Bhujbal and Eknath Khadse, leader of the opposition, formed the three-member panel which approved of the name of Vilas Patil, till recently the information commissioner for...

Nikhil Dey, convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, has been in the forefront of the RTI movement. He speaks to  Bharat Dogra  about the achievements of the RTI and the challenges ahead: How do you assess the overall impact of the RTI? Sceptics say corruption is increasing more than even before. What I can assure them is corruption would have been much higher without the RTI. In schemes...

RTI Activists from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad  have urged state governor K Sankaranarayanan to issue directions to the state information commission to update information on its official website. In a letter to the governor, the Activists have pointed out that it is mandatory for all government and semi-government offices to voluntarily provide information of the office under section 4 of the RTI Act. "However, information about the commission's address, telephone numbers and...

The APIC has introduced several innovative measures including 'File Tracking System', Status of Appeal through SMS, Video-Conferencing facility through which it could hear appeals and dispose of cases from across the state, Hussain said. Special Chief Secretary (General Administration Department) Minnie Mathew said the government has already directed the District Collectors and Superintendents of Police in the state to look into the cases of harassment of RTI Activists, if any....