Outgoing state chief information commissioner (CIC) Suresh Joshi holds the privilege of being the first state CIC under the Right to Information Act. He has upped the ante with his retirement, five years down the line. At the time of his exit, Maharashtra holds the distinction of having disposed off the maximum number of appeals in the country — 54,000 as of June, as compared to the Centre’s 50,000, and with fewer...

Social activist Anna Hazare  has said that he strongly opposed the recent selection of the four information commissioners for Maharashtra and that he would urge the governor not to swear them in. Hazare said this to a bunch of RTI activists who had been camping at his village, Ralegan Siddhi, from October 6, seeking his intervention in the selection process. According to Gaurang Vora, one of the activists, Hazare told them...

The youth will not take no for an answer. Five years on, the RTI comes of age. At four feet something, Santosh’s energy belies her petite frame. The school dropout was introduced to RTI through activist Arvind Kejriwal, and now, at Parivartan’s Sundar Nagri office, she holds fort, helping others acquire everything from BPL and ration cards to school admissions through RTI. Threats and attacks by local authorities who dubbed her...

We need spectacle in the capital, not mundane things like schools and hospitals in villages In the final years of the Roman Republic, the Senate kept the masses happy by distributing cheap food and staging big spectacles known as the circus games to get votes. In his satires, the Roman poet Juvenal observed witheringly that governance had been reduced to panem et circenses (bread and circus/games). He was referring to the...

A landmark ruling by the Central Information Commission raises hopes that government functioning will become more transparent. ON August 30, a three-member Bench of the Central Information Commission (CIC), New Delhi, gave a ruling that has the potential to bring under public scrutiny crucial aspects of the functioning of the Central and State governments that have remained hidden from the public glare all these years. The Bench, comprising Chief Information...