Haryana: Charge for RTI application reduced from Rs. 50 to Rs. 10 The Haryana government has reduced the charge for filing an application under Right to Information (RTI ) Act from Rs. 50 to Rs. 10. The Haryana Right to Information Rules, 2009, has been amended and now will be known as the Haryana Right to Information (Amendment) Rules, 2016. A spokesman of the Administrative Reforms Department said that a notification to this effect had been issued. He said that according to the amendment, an application for obtaining any information would warrant a fee of Rs. 10.
Delhi HC directs Central Information Commission to start maintaining daily order sheets within six months
In a recent order, Justice Manmohan of Delhi High Court has directed the Central Information Commission to start maintaining daily order sheets within six months. The direction came while disposing the writ petition filed by R. K. Jain, a renowned authority on indirect taxation, and the Editor of Excise Law Times. In his order, Justice Manmohan held that since the CIC is a quasi-judicial body, its records must reflect a true and correct state of affairs. Dr. L. C. Singhvi, counsel for CIC, told the court that the CIC was willing to maintain daily order sheets, and sought time to evolve a procedure. Jain had complained that during hearing of his appeal in a recent case, it was allowed by the CIC, but in the order which was passed by CIC after a long delay, the appeal was dismissed.
RTI query exposes scam in appointments at CCSU
A report obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI ) has thrown light on alleged corruption in the appointment procedure of assistant professors at Chaudhary Charan Singh University(CCSU).
As per the interview procedure, a suitable candidate is judged on the basis of his performance in the academic record & research programme and domain knowledge. In the 13 appointments made in February 2015, marks in domain knowledge were allegedly increased that led to the appointment of these aspirants.
However, a complaint was filed against one such aspirant following which the appointment was terminated. However, the remaining 12 candidates continue to be staff members.
Three Public Sector Banks With High Non-Performing Assets Rejected Most RTI Requests in 2014-15
A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) submitted a list of the big defaulters – those who owe banks over Rs. 500 crore each – before the Supreme Court, with the plea that the names not be made public, an analysis of the data on the disposal of right to information (RTI ) applications has revealed that three public sector banks (PSBs), which figure high on the list of those with large non-performing assets (NPAs), rejected the most number of applications. While the rejection rate of some banks was less than 12%, many banks had a rate as high as 50%, indicating that perhaps they have something to hide, said RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak, programme coordinator at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), who examined the annual reports released by the Central Information Commission, which contains RTI application statistics submitted by 24 PSBs u/s. 25 of the RTI Act.
SIC imposes Rs. 5K fine on town planning officers
The Nagpur bench of State Information Commission (SIC) levied a fine of Rs. 5,000 on the public information officer of town planning department here for not complying with its earlier order for providing answers to queries under Right to Information (RTI ) Act, 2005. Commissioner Vasant Patil directed to recover this amount from information officer and be paid to RTI activist Mangesh Gakre, who had lodged a complaint.
