EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...

The executive on Monday lost another excuse to prevent disclosure of ministers' assets after the Lok Sabha Secretariat rejected a request from the Prime Minister's Office seeking the legislature's permission. The LS secretariat declined the request saying the RTI Act does not have any provision for giving such "clearances''. This means the PMO has to take a call on whether details of ministers' wealth should be disclosed or not. Incidentally,...

Almost a week after RTI activist Amit Jethava was shot dead near the Gujarat High Court, the minister-in-charge of RTI Act on Thursday denied any move to frame a law to protect RTI activists while the Central Information Commissioner said it was the “job of the police” to protect them. “There is no proposal before the government to frame a specific law to protect RTI activists,” Minister of State for Public...

A full bench of the Central Information Commission headed by Chief Central Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has recently held that while all proceedings before the Parliamentary Committees (PC) are no doubt held secret, it cannot be stretched to mean that every single item of information, held anywhere, that may, now or in future, become part of the proceedings before the PC, or may be required to be produced before the...

Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day labourer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she...