Right to information (RTI) activists in the city have demanded the state government to invoke section 17 (3) (e) of the RTI Act, 2005, to remove Ramanand Tiwari from the post of state information commissioner (SIC), as his son owns a flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai. President of Nagrik Chetna Manch, Maj Gen (retd) SCN Jatar, president of Sajag Nagrik Manch, Vivek Velankar, Surajya Sangharsh Samiti chief...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

Right to Information (RTI) activist Vijay Kumbhar has demanded that there should be some restriction on supply of free information to the applicants belonging to below poverty line (BPL). As per RTI Act, 2005, section 7, the applicant would pay the fee as prescribed for information to be provided in printed or in electronic format. But no such fee shall be charged from the persons who are below poverty line (BPL). Kumbhar...

In an unprecedented move, the Goa Information Commission has summoned governor Dr S S Sidhu for claiming that the Right to Information Act didn't apply to his office. The commission took umbrage to the governor's attempt to escape accountability under RTI by claiming the his office wasn't a ''public authority'' as defined in the transparency law. The governor's stand flies in the face of the Act's scheme under which all government offices,...

In a 12 December interview, Director-General of the J&K Police (JKP) Kuldeep Khoda was questioned by Tribune journalist Jupinderjit Singh about complaints that the JKP was ignoring RTI applications.  At one point, Mr. Khoda stated that the Police  “will not entertain [RTI applications] on investigations of any case,” explaining this information “could help the accused due to which the department generally discouraged such applications.” The DGP’s stance is problematic.  On one...