d citizens to oppose the amendments tooth and nail as they would impact their right to know. Bill pushed in an opaque manner At the conference organised by RTI activists, Anjali Bhardwaj of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information said 15 political parties have thus far opposed the Bill through which the Centre seeks to control the salaries and tenures of the information commissioners in both the central and state informatio

-The Hindu Of 1.25 crore votes counted, 51 did not match, says panel New Delhi: After reports of mismatches between the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips and the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count in eight cases during the Lok Sabha election, the Election Commission has set up teams to probe seven of the cases. Of the 1.25 crore VVPAT slips counted, 51 or 0.0004% of the total saw a mismatch, according to facts shared by the EC on July 21. The EC on Wednesday order

-The Hindu Bhopal-based Ajay Dubey claims that the Act’s implementation is in shambles in party-ruled Madhya Pradesh Bhopal: The Twitter handle of the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Wednesday took down a tweet against the amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, minutes after an activist replied to it claiming that the Act’s implementation was in shambles in the State. Around 9 p.m., the handle tweeted that it didn’t accept the amendment to the Act. It read: &ldq

oduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, terming it anti-worker. The legislation introduced by labour minister Santosh Gangwar leaves fixing of minimum wages to state governments instead of recommending a National minimum wage. The Code will undermine the long struggle of workers for remunerative wages, said former information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari. Former Rajya Sabha MP and CPM Politburo member Tapan Sen called it a fraud on workers.

to know every public act, everything done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearings.” It is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government which had initiated the process for a law that would govern a citizen’s right to know. The Freedom of Information Act, 2002, floated during the term of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was the precur

-TheWire.in This number only accounts for deaths in eight states. New Delhi: Data collated by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) reveals that at least 50 persons have died cleaning sewers in the first six months of 2019 alone. According to a report in the Indian Express, the figure in question, by the NCSK’s own admission, is an underestimation as it only accounts for the number of deaths caused by cleaning sewers in

s. We need to be getting into a trajectory to achieve emission cuts to cap warming at 1.5°C,” Mr. de Alba said in a press briefing here on Tuesday. This implies countries enhancing their Nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050, a UN statement noted. Please click here to read more.

-The Hindu Re-verification would have caused a lot of misery, says AAMSU GUWAHATI: Various organisations in Assam welcomed the Supreme Court’s order extending the deadline for publishing the final NRC to August 31 and turning down the request of the Centre and Assam government to conduct 20% sample re-verification of listed names in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in the other districts on Tuesday. In a joint statement, the Assam State Jamiat and All-Assam Minority St

-The Hindu Water conservationist Rajendra Singh says it will also take away the rights of States and communities over rivers Belagavi (Karnataka): Water conservationist Rajendra Singh has criticised the Draft River Basin Management Bill, 2018, and said it aims to reduce river water to a commodity that can be traded. He added that the Bill would also take away the rights of States and communities over rivers. “The newly-formed Jal Shakti Ministry has prepared the Draft River Basi

-The Hindu Opposition accuses the government of trying to dilute the effectiveness of the law New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 three days after it was introduced. It seeks to amend the landmark transparency law and bring in changes involving the salaries and tenures of Information Commissioners (ICs) at the States and Centre. As per the amendment ICs — who currently have five-year tenures — will have “terms as