Political parties should not be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information Act by terming them 'public authorities', as this would not only hamper their smooth working but help political rivals to file pleas with malicious intention to seek information, the government told the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has complained against six major political parties for not appointing Public Information Officers.
The bill which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the transparency law will be sent to a standing committee for wider consultations, government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
With tags of 'patriots' and 'anti-nationals' being at the centre of debate, the Central Information Commission has asked the home ministry to make public the list of people who are facing sedition charges for indulging in alleged anti-national activities.
The situation has arisen second time since the Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in 2014.
Rejecting the opposition's charge that the bill will weaken the act, the government said it was fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution.
The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry in 2017 on the basis of allegations that 13 faculty members of the academy were appointed in spite of being ineligible.
Reviving their anti-nuclear stir, leaders of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy on Friday began an indefinite fast at Idinthakarai to press for implementation of some of their demands including scrapping plans to set up units 3 and 4 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
The Congress and the Left on Sunday questioned the appointment of the new army chief by superseding two officers, saying every appointment by the government has become controversial.
'The Himmatsinghji Report is still 'missing'.' 'It is a great loss for the knowledge of India's borders.' 'It would have an immense value at a time China is bound to shift its attention to other border fronts in the Himalayas,' notes Claude Arpi.
A selection of some interesting stories from Wednesday that you possibly would not have read in your newspaper.
The Prime Minister's Office has told the Central Information Commission that it cannot declassify files related to freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose as it will adversely affect relations with foreign countries.
The CIC, the top appellate body in RTI matters, went through the law, orders of the Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India report, submissions of the Central Public Information Officer in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to conclude that the status, nature and functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfil required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.
The proposed rules, aimed at replacing RTI rules of 2012, have been placed by the department of personnel and training on its website for comments from public.
Jagdish Chhokar, founder-member of the Association for Democratic Reforms says there should be a law to regulate the functioning of political parties.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) on Friday urged the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators running the Board of Control for Cricket in India to 'immediately initiate efforts' to look into the issues raised by historian Ramachandra Guha in his resignation letter.
The Prime Minister's Office has refused to give information on the expenses incurred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Singapore saying it is too "vague" and "wide".
A day after the Supreme Court decided to interpret the provision of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said her denying LOP's post to Congress was based on rules and tradition and that the Apex court had made no observation against her.
'The prime minister has taken pre-emptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional.'
'The bureaucracy is also hardening its stand and in most cases has realised that the commissioners are not really committed to transparency,' says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
The commission suggested that a comprehensive plan should be devised to handle the issue of missing files which has become a "stumbling block" in implementing the RTI act.
Geetanjali Krishna explains why this may slow down India's fight against corruption.
The CIC has invited only seven RTI activists -- Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shekhar Singh, Amrita Johri, Anjali Bharadwaj, Venkatesh Nayak and Lokesh Batra -- for the function to be held on Friday.
The Right to Information should not be limited to right to know but it should empower every citizen to question those in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.
The government on Friday defended its decision to amend the Right To Information Act to keep political parties out of the purview of the ombudsman, saying they are not "public authorities" but voluntary association of people.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is likely to challenge the Central Information Commission's ruling that the cricket board be brought under the Right to Information act with a top official accusing the Committee of Administrators (COA) of 'wilful negligence' in dealing with the matter.
Former Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Mathur on Thursday took over as the new chief information commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
After admitting the application of Gujarat University, seeking to quash the CIC order on technical grounds, judge S H Vora issued notices to Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu and Kejriwal to furnish their responses and kept further hearing next month.
In a statement, the CPI-M Politburo contended that a political party was a voluntary association of citizens who believe in the ideology, programme and the leadership, and it was accountable only to its membership.
The Delhi government on Monday clarified that the advisory issued on two-finger test on rape victims was "misinterpreted" and said it will issue a fresh notification clearly mentioning that this procedure to ascertain sexual assault is banned.
The Congress chief said if his party is elected to power, its government would spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education.
In students' register of M N College Visnagar Narendra Modi's date of birth is mentioned as August 29, 1949. In his election affidavit, he did not reveal his date of birth, but mentioned his age. His official birth date, as available in the public domain, is September 17, 1950.
Another meeting will be called next week at a mutually-convenient date.
Budding RTI activist from Chennai files request with ONGC. Instead of response, police comes asking about her.
Why is the Indian cricket team still using the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) logo which resembles 'Star of India' honour given by the British to their favourite princes in colonial times?
'I am only asking about his travel bills and expenditure.'
On December 16, 2015, the apex court ordered disclosure of the defaulters' list, and upheld a Central Information Commission order to this effect.
For the past 10 years or more, the RBI has been turning down dozens of applications under the RTI Act that sought disclosing the list of wilful defaulters and the RBI's inspection reports. In fact, it is the only organisation that has a granular and complete view of the heist that has been going on for 25 years at least. But it has escaped any blame for the multiple rounds of bankruptcy and massive periodic recapitalisation of public sector banks caused by bad loans. In fact, they don't want anyone to know how incompetent and collusive they have been in handling bad loans, says Debashis Basu.
PMO's stance came as part of a reply to the whistle-blower forest officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, after he dragged the PMO to the Central Information Commission for denying information under the RTI Act.
Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu also suggested that couples may be allowed to seek police protection from the registrar where marriage is to be performed under the Special Marriage Act.
86.69 per cent of available stock of currency notes is being taken away from circulation and less than one-fourth of these are being replenished by newly printed Rs 2,000 notes
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