The report said Sasikala was allowed to wear her personal clothes and cook. A pressure cooker and spices were found in her prison cell.
'Not disclosing information to the public indicates that there is something wrong with Project Cheetah.'
Most of those punished were managers across different scales, from Scale 7 (general managers) to Scale 1 (officers). However, at least one bank - Oriental Bank of Commerce - revealed that 17 single-window operators (SWOs), five head cashiers, two clerks, one clerk-cum-cashier, and one peon-cum-housekeeper were among those penalised for staff delinquency. Punishments against these employees included withholding of increment, demotion for one year, and censure under provisions of the bipartite settlement.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com finds out how the government is seeking to change the RTI Act, and what impact it will have on the Right to Information.
The process of conferring the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was initiated on the first day of his farewell 200th cricket Test on November 14, 2013 and the announcement made two days later, according to an RTI reply.
The RTI query revealed that 3,125 security personnel, too, lost their lives tackling the Naxal menace.
The matter came up before Justice Subramonium Prasad who listed it for hearing on October 16.
A combined total of 812 police officers and security personnel have been deployed for the security of 84 VIPs in Maharashtra, with 52 men accorded to guard only Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and his MLA daughter, a RTI query revealed here.
In the run-up to the assembly elections in Delhi, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal announced an Ambedkar scholarship for free foreign education of the city's Dalit students. The scholarship is a response to the BJP's "insult" of Ambedkar, Kejriwal said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah "insulted and made fun of Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar in Parliament. Crores of people who love Ambedkar were deeply pained," the former Delhi chief minister said. Kejriwal added that the scholarship is a response to the insult meted out by the BJP to the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Under the scheme, any Dalit student from Delhi will be able to receive education in foreign universities. If they get admission in any such university, the Delhi government will bear the entire cost of their education, travel and accommodation. Children of government employees will also be eligible for the scheme.
The Maharashtra government spent over Rs 25 lakh on visits of ministers and bureaucrats to London to finalise the purchase of the house where Dalit icon B R Ambedkar stayed while pursuing higher studies, an RTI query has revealed.
The RTI also revealed that 18 other Maharashtra ministers are on the list of defaulters.
"Keeping in view the ongoing CBI investigation in the matter, disclosure of information may be withheld for the present, in terms of Section 8 (1)(h) of the RTI Act," the PMO said in reply to an RTI query.
On an RTI query about Narendra Modi's travel expenses during the 2007 women empowerment sammelans, activist Trupti Shah was told that the 'chief minister's expenses may be considered nil' as his office did not mention it in the accounts.
The electricity bill of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Civil Lines residence was about Rs 91,000 for the months of April and May, according to an RTI reply.
Prof Himanshu Rai, CAT 2010 Convenor went on record to say that the news about the Common Admission Test becoming a two-tier exam this year onwards was not true and that this year, there would be no change in the system.
An RTI query has revealed shocking data on gang rapes in the city considered safe for women!
The study was ordered in March 2011 when the nation was debating on the amount of unaccounted income with figures projected by politicians and civil society in crores of rupees.
Replying to an RTI query, the PMO said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has already been formed and its investigation is underway.
Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Manipur and Telangana report the most wastage.
Government has declined to disclose details of follow-up action on the Shunglu Committee report on large scale financial and managerial irregularities in Commonwealth Games related projects.
The UIDAI is also looking into six complaints regarding alleged misuse of personal data while issuing the Aadhaar numbers to individuals.
Cutting across parties, members of the state legislative assembly on Friday unanimously resolved to dismiss the notice under the RTI Act as "breach of privilege".
Politicians from Maharashtra, among others, had allegedly enjoyed their stay free of cost at Shirdi Saibaba Trust's guest house during most of the tenure of its chairman and former Congress MLA Jayant Sasane, an RTI query has revealed.
The Centre is contemplating a bunch of amendments to its flagship Right to Information Act to stop 'mischievous and frivolous' queries through the right that is aimed at bringing more transparency in government services.RTI activists, however are likely to protest against this move. Activists like Aruna Roy, Nikhil De, Shekhar Singh and Arundhati Roy had already sent an appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to amend the RTI Act.
Judicial proceedings against Warren Anderson, proclaimed offender in the over two-decade old Bhopal gas leak case, are still pending in the United States. "Since Warren Anderson was declared a proclaimed offender during trial, the trial against him, M/s Union Carbide Corporation, USA is still pending," the CBI said in response to an RTI query.
The government has now agreed to make public the audio recordings of proceedings of the joint drafting committee constituted to draft the Lokpal Bill.
Of the 137,000 drug government tested 345 turned out to be fake.
27 out of 58 institutions and schemes being run by the Centre are named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Eight months after the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran, the proclaimed offender in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Central Bureau of Investigation is yet to receive his death certificate from Sri Lankan authorities. According to information accessed under the Right to Information Act, CBI said it was still awaiting the certificate of Prabhakaran's death from the Lankan authorities.
According to the RTI reply, absconding diamantaire Choksi's company Gitanjali Gems tops the list of the defaulters with a whopping amount of Rs 5,492 crore. This is followed by REI Agro with Rs 4,314 crore and Winsome Diamonds with Rs 4,076 crore. Rotomac Global Private Limited has funded advances of Rs 2,850 crore which have been technically written off and Kudos Chemie Ltd with Rs 2,326 crore, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, now owned by Ramdev's Patanjali, with Rs 2,212 crore and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd with Rs 2,012 crore being the other companies to default on the payment. Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines figures in the list at number 9, with outstanding of Rs 1943 crore which have been technically written off by the banks.
In its order on an RTI query filed by advocate Arjun Harkauli on the issue, the Central Information Commission observed, "In response to therequest for information relating to disinvestment of government's 51 per cent stake BALCO, the Chief Public Information Officers of the respondents have stated that they have made attempts to search and trace the desired documents but to no avail."
The Prime Minister's Office has received over 80 letters from former and sitting Members of Parliament regarding their concerns and suggestions on the telecom sector, including 2G licences distributed in 2008.
Propagating the prime minister's messages doesn't come cheap, reveals an RTI response. The one-year anniversary message, for instance, cost Rs 8.3 crore, reports Prasanna D Zore.
The Central Information Commission has issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister's Office for not replying to an RTI query filed nearly one-and-a-half years ago.
While sitting MPs are entitled to use the railways' first class air-conditioned or executive class for free, their spouses too can avail free travel under certain conditions.
As per labour ministry, a total of 12,666,377 children were working in various sectors including agriculture.
Income tax online return accounts of certain people have been unauthorisedly accessed, the Finance Ministry has warned.
Observing that if people file an RTI query, they must know who the defaulters are, the bench asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) why the information on defaulters should be withheld
The 80-odd projects completed till now are already valued at Rs 14,000 crore.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has consumed electricity worth more than Rs 16.5 crore in the past five years and the prime minister and his office has consumed power worth Rs 37.26 lakh in the past three years, information gained through the Right to Information Act has shown.
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