-The Hindu Vacant posts, inadequate members take a toll on the transparency regime A good 17 years after India got the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the transparency regime in the country remains a mirage with nearly 3.15 lakh complaints or appeals pending with 26 information commissions across India. According to a report by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan, the backlog of appeals or complaints is steadily increasing in commissions every year. The number of...

-Press release by Satark Nagrik Sangathan dated October 11, 2022 Tomorrow (October 12, 2022) marks 17 years of implementation of the RTI Act in India. The law has empowered millions of people to seek information and hold the government accountable. Under the RTI law, information commissions are the final appellate authority and are mandated to safeguard and facilitate people’s fundamental right to information. Information commissions (ICs) have been set up at...

-The Hindu RTI data show that no cornea was collected in some States in 2021-22; Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh fare better; nearly 4.8 million are visually challenged in India Despite Central Government’s emphasis on improving eye-donations across the country—Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, some States of North-East and Island States— have had zero cornea collection in 2021-22 so far as per data procured through RTI. The data from 2016 onwards...

-Newsclick.in On Thursday, activists alleged that owing to a “shortage of schools” in the city, over 80,000 children have been denied admission to government schools in the recent past; the merger-closure policy has also led to a “steep decline” in the classroom teaching-learning process, according to them. New Delhi: The continuing merger of state-run schools in the national capital in the name of rationalisation has come under flak for leading to “severe...

-PTI/ TheWire.in States such as Tripura, Uttarakhand and Mizoram have just one functional eye bank, according to data. New Delhi: Eleven states and Union Territories, including Goa and Jammu and Kashmir, have no functional eye banks, according to official data.   Doctors, however, underlined that such banks alone don’t serve the purpose as there is an increasing demand for eye donors, especially in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the situation. According to...