Adding diversity to plate
The Government of India has proposed mandatory rice fortification to tackle the issue of malnutrition in the country. The process of fortification includes externally adding nutrients to a food item with
The Government of India has proposed mandatory rice fortification to tackle the issue of malnutrition in the country. The process of fortification includes externally adding nutrients to a food item with
the Maharashtra State Information Commission has slapped two top forest officials with a fine of Rs 25,000 for withholding information, sought under the Right To Information (rti) Act, for over a year. At a hearing on July 4, 2008, rti Commissioner Vilas Patil asked the officials
The Right to Information Act is supposed to ensure transparency in administration and governance. But a survey done by Pragati Abhiyan in Nashik district of Maharashtra finds that many government offices have not yet nominated a public information officer as required under the Act. Often information exists in a raw form, but it is not processed into a consolidated format.
Meena Menon MUMBAI: The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has published information on biosafety studies of Bt brinjal, developed by MAHYCO, on its official website. The data in eight volumes, runs into more than 1,100 pages.
By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Aug 18: Very recently the Early Birds had submitted an application to the office of the Chief Conservator of Forest (Wild Life) under RTI Act, 2005 about the status of Amchang Wild Life Sanctuary at the outskirts of Guwahati and the reply thereof had revealed tantalizing facts. The report stated that the State Public Information Officer for the department, A Rabha, Conservator of Forest (WL) had admitted that out of 7864.10 hectares of land, 770.0 hectares area are under human occupation, almost 10 per cent of the total land of the sanctuary.
By Rashme Sehgal New Delhi,Aug. 17: An RTI filed by the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan (YJA) with the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has highlighted that quasi-government organisations are illegally extracting huge quantities of water from the Yamuna flood plain.
Babus in the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest can no longer deny information to applicants under the RTI Act on the pretext that the information has to be collected from different sources. The CIC has recently rescinded a circular by the ministry under which ministry officials denied information to people under RTI.
Taking a leaf out of Bihar's book, the department of information technology (DIT) has come up with the idea of setting up an RTI call centre which will allow applicants to seek information over the phone from any of the central government departments and organizations across the country. The call centre will save citizens the trouble not only of writing and posting the RTI applications to different public authorities but also of buying postal orders or demand drafts for paying the nominal fee of Rs 10.
Enquiry and complaint are two chronic problems which plague divisional and subdivisional offices of the Assam State Electricity Board all over the State. Annoyed by frequent ringing of the telephone, most instruments in the complaint rooms of the ASEB offices remain uncradled. This is done just to avoid complaints. But after implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, ASEB's ploy to avoid complaints suffered a serious setback.
- The Right to Information Act, once passed, will allow ordinary Bhutanese to be informed and get a responsible, transparent and accountable government. Though the Act was drafted in 2007, the cabinet is yet to introduce it in the Assembly. "Information is absolutely critical for fighting corruption and the government should introduce the act and enforce it at the earliest date possible,' said the chairperson of the anti corruption commission (ACC), Neten Zangmo.
Systemic changes in governance are happening gradually. For instance, officials are scared if they do something under political pressure, they know they are answerable to the public. The enthusiasm for the act is there and it will go up- Ravleen Kaur