काउंटरव्यू

Arunachal Pradesh Raj Bhavan By Venkatesh Nayak* The border State of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern corner of India in the news again – for all the wrong reasons – again. For several weeks crisis had been brewing over the existence or the lack of majority support for the Indian National Congress-led Government in that State. Thanks to the electronic media, video clippings of some meetings between some of the legislators and the Governor of that State showed the extent of distrust that exists between them. On 26 January, 2016 after India celebrated its 67th Republic day, the President of India issued a Proclamation under Article 356 of the Constitution taking over the reins of the government of Arunachal Pradesh. Ostensibly this action was taken on the basis of report(s) received from the Governor and the subsequent recommendation of the Union Cabinet to the President of India about the “breakdown of the constitutional machinery” in that State. The President is reported to have s

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* January 17, 2016 was observed as the ‘World Day of Migrants and Refugees’; it’s an appropriate, I feel, to share with you a new chapter in my life! I am really not sure where to begin! What I want to share – has many different dimensions; it’s like a multi-coloured tapestry – delicately but exquisitely inter-woven into a unique design! The creativity and the dexterity involved can be appreciated and understood – only by those who can watch it’s unfolding from a distance! Somehow, I feel myself in that situation: looking into, about to leap into something I did not even think was possible – some months ago! Fr. Pedro Arrupe is for me and for several of my brother Jesuits and others one of the great Saints of the post-Vatican II period. He was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965, a time when the Church and the world at large was going through a historical transformation. I joined the novitiate in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 1974. About a year later,

By Venkatesh Nayak* In March 2015, the State Information Commission of Uttar Pradesh invited people’s comments on a set of Draft RTI Rules that were intended to replace the Rules notified in 2006. Commonwealth Human Rights Commission (CHRI) and several other civil society organisations and activists gave their views pointing out what required to be improved in the Draft in order to make the Rules regime conform with the letter and spirit of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). After eight months, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has notified a new set of RTI Rules that will become applicable in Uttar Pradesh (click HERE to download). Overall, it is encouraging to see the UP Government discard the minimalist approach to rule making under the RTI Act and go in for greater detailing of the procedures for implementing the provisions of the RTI Act. The new set of RTI Rules do create some convenience for citizens who seek information from public authorities in Uttar Pradesh. Howeve

In a communique, Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant, Swati Desai and Trupti Shah of the Paryavaran Sukaksha Samiti, Vadodara, and Ziya Pathan of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, have said that the latest National Green Tribunal (NGT), Western Zone Bench, Pune, order striking down Environment Clearance procedure adopted during 1998-2003 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India for granting the “Ex-Post-Facto Environmental Clearances” to defaulting industries should lead to closing down of many known industries of Gujarat and across country that started production without prior environment clearance. Text: As per circular dated 13 March 2003 of then Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) there were 213 such defaulting industries. We still have to find out the names and number of such defaulting industries that operated as on 5 November 1998 while the MoEF of the day claimed that they learnt about the defaulting industries starting their production without prio

In a letter to Sanjay Kothari, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training, Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, has insisted on the need to resolve the problems relating to the payment of various kinds of fees by citizens and their realisation by PIOs under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). Text of the letter: *** I am writing to draw your attention to a persistent problem relating to the payment and utilisation of fees under the RTI Act. The common complaint is that PIOs are required by the applicable financial rules to deposit all fees received from citizens in the bank accounts of their offices and make withdrawals from the funds allotted to meet contingency expenditure for paying the information reproduction charges. Several PIOs, across different states, have reported that they often end up paying the photocopying charges from their pockets as withdrawal fro

By Venkatesh Nayak* In November 2015, the arrest of the notorious underworld don- Chhota Rajan in Indonesia and his eventual deportation to India hit the headlines in the print and electronic media. According to media reports he was caught in Bali travelling under an assumed identity and an allegedly fake passport. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is said to have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against unknown officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PoCA) and other applicable penal laws in this case. A tremendous achievement for India’s law enforcement agencies, no doubt. Within less than a week of this news report about CBI’s swift action being published in the media, I submitted a formal request under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act), seeking a copy of the FIR from the CBI- nothing more, nothing less. The CBI has rejected the request after 49 days of receiving the request claiming that the RTI Act does not apply to it because it is an