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15 lakh apartment owners suffer as officials ignore DAO Act
NEW DELHI: While in response to a query filed under the Right to Information Act, the Delhi Chief Secretary recently confirmed that the Delhi Apartment Ownership Act 1986 — that grants equal voting and ownership rights to general power of attorney holders in Cooperative Group Housing Societies — “stands implemented”, officials in the Union Ministry of Urban Development had in an affidavit recently given a vague statement on the issue in the Delhi High Court.
RTI Act a potent tool in the hands of helpless individuals
Nannu, a daily-wage labourer from East Delhi, lost his ration card and applied for a duplicate. Despite repeated visits to the Food and Civil Supplies office for four months, the duplicate card was not issued.
Here is where the familiar story of the uncaring system and the helpless individual takes a turn.
Nannu filed a Right To Information (RTI) application. Within four days, the Food Inspector came to his house and told him that his card was ready.
The Food and Supplies Officer invited Nannu to his office and offered him a cup of tea and handed over his duplicate.
He also had a request to make to Nannu — withdraw the RTI application.
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Nannu, a daily-wage labourer from East Delhi, lost his ration card and applied for a duplicate. Despite repeated visits to the Food and Civil Supplies office for four months, the duplicate card was not issued.
Here is where the familiar story of the uncaring system and the helpless individual takes a turn.
Nannu filed a Right To Information (RTI) application. Within four days, the Food Inspector came to his house and told him that his card was ready.
The Food and Supplies Officer invited Nannu to his office and offered him a cup of tea and handed over his duplicate.
He also had a request to make to Nannu — withdraw the RTI application.
This is the power the RTI Act vests in the hands of the individual, said Arvind Kejriwal, from Parivartan, a Delhi-based citizens’ movement that works towards empowering people, speaking at a talk organised by Ellements, a women’s collective, here on Monday.
The reason the RTI Act is a potent tool is simple — if the information requested is not provided by the officials, they need to pay Rs.250 for every day of delay from their salary. There is no other act that directly links performance of government officials to their salary, said Mr. Kejriwal.
Kerala SIC pulls up Chief Minister’s Office
The State Information Commission (SIC) has pulled up the Chief Minister’s Office for taking more than 15 months to reply to a person who had sought certain information from the office and warned government officials against failing to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information Act (RTI).
In a strongly-worded order, Chief Information Commissioner Palat Mohandas said, “the delay had occurred due to the inaction on the part of the officials concerned in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.”
He said: “The request was being tossed around and no serious effort was made to respond to the request.” “The commission will caution all concerned to be alert and vigilant in dealing with requests/appeals as received from the citizens under the RTI Act 2005 in future,” Mr. Mohandas said.
Two RTI courses in Mumbai law college from this session - IndianExpress.Com
Mumbai's K C Law College, recognised by the Bar Council of India, will be the first law institute in India to introduce two courses on Right to Information.
The courses, which will begin this academic session beginning July, are being offered at two levels — foundation and advanced.
College principal Neelima Chandiramani, who is the brainchild behind these certificate courses says, the common man should be able to make good use of RTI and sloppily drafted applications will never yield information.
While the syllabus of the foundation course will comprise history of the Act, its provisions and case studies, the advanced-level is designed for citizens who know the basics but need to learn certain ‘tricks’ such as ways to ask for information when the government or a department tries to hoodwink a person by giving excuses.
RTI Act effective against graft: U.N. report
The Right to Information Act 2005 was “one of the most progressive legislations” in the developing world for tackling corruption, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday.
India was one of the eight countries in Asia and the Pacific to enact such a legislation, the United Nations Development Report on “Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives – Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific” said, adding it was perhaps too soon to judge whether the legislation had worked throughout the region.
The process through which the Act was drafted and came into force in India illustrated the power of sustained pressure: when the government proposed to amend the law to exclude some administrative files and Cabinet papers from it, intense pressure from civil society organisations forced it to drop the plan, the report said. India’s law was particularly effective, the report said, because it specified information that must be disclosed on a proactive basis, including some that would help expose corruption.
RTI applicant gets threats for seeking details of NREGS - IndianExpress.Com
Lahkar, the son of a school teacher, had filed an RTI application on May 13, seeking details of activities completed under NREGA in two gram panchayats under the Barigog-Banbhag Development Block , including photocopies of payment register for each activity, copies of the muster roll for all work done and the list of persons provided with job cards. Even as he waited for a response from the authorities, on May 18 an anonymous caller first called him up on his mobile phone, first from a mobile phone and then from a landline, threatening him of dire consequences if he did not withdraw his RTI application immediaately.
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All is not well with the implementation of NREGA scheme in Assam. And so also is the fate of the Right to Information Act. While Government officers are known for trying to deny information sought under the RTI Act, the latest is a case where a person was threatened twice for seeking details under NREGA.Hiteshwar Lahkar, a law graduate and a full-time volunteer at Gramya Vikash Mancha, a local NGO in Nalbari district, has been getting calls on his mobile phone, with an anonymous caller telling him that he would be picked up at night, given “necessary treatment” and finally eliminated.
PUDUCHERRY:964 applications received under RTI Act: official
The territorial administration has received a total of 964 applications under the Right to Information Act during the last financial year and out of which particulars were provided for 794 queries, according to V. Madhivanan, Joint Secretary, Administrative Reforms Wing.
A total of 170 applications were rejected for being misleading queries or for not coming under the purview of the Act, Mr. Madhivanan said.
The Labour Department topped the receivers list with a total of 88 applications. It was followed by the Public Works Department, which received 77 applications during the period, he told The Hindu. The Public Information Officers (PIOs) in various government departments received the applications.
SC refuses to interfere with HC order on RTI fees - IndianExpress.Com
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Observing that high courts are "empowered and well within their jurisdiction" to frame rules with regard to the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Allahabad High Court's decision of levying Rs 500 as fees for seeking any information under the Act.
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Contending that such an "hefty amount" charged as fees under the RTI Act was illegal, perverse and bad in law, S N Shukla who appeared for the petitioner said, "It virtually amounts to negating the Right to Information Act."
The NGO in its application filed before the high court in July 2006 had sought two details from the court -- number of cases disposed of and information on administration of cases.
The Supreme Court was told that the high court had declined to part with the information and an appeal was subsequently filed with the State Information Commission in September 2006.
Meanwhile, the full bench of the high court came out with the rule specifying that for every information, a separate application has to be filed with the fee of Rs 500, the NGO claimed.
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