Rti

Railway blankets washed once a month? RTI sparks passenger concerns

Many passengers are dissatisfied with the dark-coloured blankets provided by Indian Railways, as the colour hides stains and make it difficult to assess cleanliness

Four state information commissions defunct with no commissioners: Report

Four state information commissions, the top appellate bodies in RTI-related matters in states, have been lying defunct with no information commissioners to adjudicate complaints and appeals against public authorities, a report said on Friday. The report by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a transparency advocacy group, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of the enactment of the Right to Information Act, said the state information commissions in Goa, Jharkhand, Tripura, and Telangana have been without a commissioner. According to the RTI Act, the state and central information commissions have a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners to adjudicate complaints and appeals filed by citizens if the public authority does not supply information sought by them as per provisions of the law. The report said no information commissioner was appointed in Jharkhand after the completion of the tenure of the last incumbent on May 8, 2020, rendering it completely defunct for more than

Drug haul kingpin is chairman of Delhi Youth Congress' RTI cell: BJP

The BJP alleged on Thursday that the kingpin arrested in the case of seizure of Rs 5,600 crore here is the chairman of the RTI cell of the Delhi Youth Congress. BJP spokesperson and MP Sudhanshu Trivedi slammed the Congress for its alleged links to drug dealers involved in destroying the country and sought explanation from the main opposition party. He questioned if the drug money was being used by the Congress in its campaign and whether the party's relationship with the alleged kingpin Tushar Goyal extended to business as well. Was there an arrangement between drug dealers and the Congress that they will be given a free run in Haryana, if the party comes to power, he asked. Trivedi claimed that Goyal not only had pictures with senior Congress leaders like K C Venugopal and Deepender Singh Hooda but also had the mobile number of Hooda. The Hooda family should explain, he said. He read from Goyal's appointment letter as the head of the Delhi Youth Congress's RTI cell, claiming th

1.52 lakh safety category posts vacant, says Railways in RTI reply

Out of around 10 lakh sanctioned posts under the safety category in the Indian Railways, more than 1.5 lakh are vacant, the Railway Ministry has said in response to an application under the Right to Information Act in March. Officials, however, have said the safety of trains is of topmost priority and the railways has made significant investments in this matter in the past 10 years while also taking up many structural and systemic improvements that have had a positive impact on safe operations. Safety category posts include train drivers, inspectors, crew controllers, loco instructors, train controllers, track maintainers, station masters, pointsmen, electric signal maintainers and signalling supervisors among others. Being directly involved in the running of trains, personnel in these posts are crucial to safe train operations. "The total number of sanctioned, on roll (working) and vacant posts in safety category of Indian Railways, as available in this office, as on 01.03.2024 ..

Over 7,500 trees cut for 16-km section of Delhi-Dehradun Expressway: RTI

As many as 7,575 trees have been felled on a nearly 16-km-long section of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway and over 1.76 lakh are to be planted in compensation for it, according to the National Highways Authority of India. Of the felled trees on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun section of the project, 4,983 were in Uttarakhand, while 2,592 were in Uttar Pradesh, the NHAI said in response to a query filed under provisions of the Right To Information (RTI) Act. In the RTI query, Noida-based social activist Amit Gupta also sought to know the status of replantation and survival of trees on the 15.8-km-long section of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway. In his response, Pankaj Kumar Mourya, the public information officer-cum-project director, said 155 trees have been translocated in Uttar Pradesh and 121 of them have survived the translocation. According to the compensatory afforestation scheme submitted by the forest departments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, 1,76,050 trees are to be planted by them

ASI reveals records on demolition of Mathura's Keshavdev temple: RTI

Archaeological Survey of India's response to RTI query cites 1920 gazette confirmed the dismantling of Keshavdev temple for the construction of Aurangzeb's mosque

AIIMS-Delhi got Rs 23 cr from govt in 5 years for rare diseases: RTI reply

The AIIMS-Delhi received more than Rs 23 crore in funding from the Centre for treatment of rare diseases in the last five years, according to information received through RTI Act. Overall the Centre has released around Rs 90 crore in funds to several Centres of Excellence (CoE) for treatment of rare diseases since 2019, the information received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act showed. The Delhi All India Institute of Medical Sciences, or AIIMS, one of the eight CoE for treatment of rare diseases in the country, said it received Rs 1 crore in 2019, nil in 2020, Rs 4.10 crore in 2021, Rs 7.12 crore in 2023, and Rs 10.93 crore in 2023. The Department of Health and Family Welfare said as per records maintained in the Rare Disease Cell, the government released Rs 1.30 crore in 2019-20, Rs 10 crore in 2020-21, Rs 3.15 crore in 2021-21, Rs 34.99 crore in 2022-23, and Rs 40 crore in 2023-24 (till date). The RTI query was filed by Noida-based social activist Amit Gupta. According t

Over 67,000 trains cancelled in South East Central Zone in 3 years: RTI

Indian Railways cancelled 32,757 trains in 2020, suspended the operations of 32,151 trains in 2021, called off 2,474 trains in 2022, and postponed 208 trains in April 2023

Guruvayur temple has over 260 kg of gold, nearly 20,000 gold lockets: RTI

The famed Guruvaur Sree Krishna Temple in this central Kerala district, which recently revealed details of bank deposits to the tune of over Rs 1,700 crore, has declared that it also has over 260 kg of gold in stock. In an RTI reply, the authorities of the temple said it has 263.637 kg of gold comprising precious stones and coins, and nearly 20,000 gold lockets. The management of the shrine had earlier refused to give details due to security reasons. The RTI document, which was provided after an appeal, showed that the temple owns 6,605 kg of silver, 19,981 gold lockets and 5,359 silver ones. The RTI, however, has not revealed the total value of gold and silver since the antiquity of some of them has not yet been established. In December last, the RTI revealed the bank deposits to be to the tune of Rs 1,737.04 crore and land of 271.05 acres the value of which was yet to be assessed. The centuries-old shrine, where Lord Vishnu is worshipped as Krishna, attracts thousands of people

RBI cracked whip on ICICI, others for flouting norms, but was ignored: RTI

The Reserve Bank of India had slapped show cause notices (SCNs) and imposed penalties on the ICICI Bank and certain other banks way back in 2017, for violating various norms, according to a RTI reply

Online portal for filing RTI applications 'practically ready', says SC

The Supreme Court Friday said an online portal for filing RTI applications to help people access information about the top court is "practically ready" for launch. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli said the online portal to streamline responses of the Supreme Court under the Right to Information Act is ready for being unveiled. "The online portal of the Supreme Court for streamlining the responses under the Right to Information Act 2005 is practically ready for being launched. In this view of the matter, the grievance of the petitioners has been duly met. The petition is accordingly disposed of," the bench said. The top court was hearing a plea filed by law students Akriti Agarwal and Lakshya Purohit seeking a mechanism to file RTI applications online. Currently, the RTI applications with respect to the top court are filed through post. The PIL contended that the e-committee has already provided an efficient mechanism for e-filing of petitions but do

Effective use of RTI will help building a corruption free country: Om Birla

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday said the effective use of the Right to Information Act (RTI) will help in building a developed and corruption free country as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Inaugurating the 15th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission (CIC), the Speaker said the main aim of the RTI Act is empowering citizens, bringing transparency, getting system rid of corruption and taking democracy to the people of the country in the true sense. Addressing the two-day convention titled "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Citizen centric Governance through RTI", Minister of state for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh said the non-domiciles and non-State subjects of Jammu and Kashmir will also now be entitled to file RTI related on issues related to Union Territory (UT) or agencies. Lauding the Commission for hearing petitions from newly carved out Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh during the peak of Covid lockdown, th

Over 300,000 RTI cases pending in India, highest in Maharashtra: Report

The maximum number of RTIs were received by the Central government at 11 million, followed by Maharashtra at 8.6 million and Tamil Nadu at 3.6 million

Centre spent Rs 38 lakh on Trump's 36-hour State Visit in 2020: RTI

The Centre spent approximately Rs 38 lakh on the 36-hour State visit by former US President Donald Trump in 2020 in accommodation, meals, logistics etc, the External Affairs Ministry has told the Central Information Commission. On his maiden visit to India, Trump accompanied by his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and several top officials had visited Ahmedabad, Agra, and New Delhi on February 24-25, 2020. He had spent three hours in Ahmedabad on February 24 during which he attended a 22-km-long roadshow, paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram, and addressed a mega gathering "Namaste Trump" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the newly built Motera Cricket Stadium. Trump later flew to Agra on the same day to visit Taj Mahal. He visited the national capital on February 25 where he held bilateral talks with Modi. One Mishall Bhathena in an RTI had sought to know from the External Affairs Ministry the total expenses incurred by the Indian ...

10 people from Gujarat banned from filing RTI queries in last 18 months

The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), which imposed the ban, listed 'using RTI Act to harass government officials' and 'filing multiple queries' as the reasons

RTI practised by govt: Chidambaram's dig over economic data 'suppression'

Chidambaram's remarks come after a media report cited the latest consumption expenditure survey by the NSO to claim that consumer spending fell for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18

18 PSBs hit by 2,480 cases of fraud of over Rs 31,000 cr in Q1: RTI

As many as 1,197 cases of cheating involving Rs 12,012.77 crore were detected in SBI in the first quarter, according to the RTI reply

Proposed amendment will finish RTI Act, end CIC's independence: Ex-chief

'The amendment will end commissioners' independence and turn them into glorified clerks'

NRIs not eligible to file RTI applications: Govt informs Lok Sabha

Minister of State for Personnel and Training Jitendra Singh said only citizens of India have the right to seek information under the provisions of RTI Act, 2005

NRIs cannot file RTIs to seek governance-related information: Govt

The subject to the provisions of the Act, the citizens of India can file an online application under the Right to Information Act, 2005