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Showing posts from December, 2016

Why is RBI rejecting RTI access to demonetisation records?

By Venkatesh Nayak* A recent media report quotes the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Government of India, saying, there was no need to go into the process of decision making regarding the 8th November demonetisation drive. If the report is true, this is a worrisome departure from the commitment to transparency and accountability voiced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, time and again. Demonetisation and the tale of two RTIs On 14 November, within a week of the demonetisation drive, I filed an RTI application with the DEA seeking copies of the Cabinet Note that was approved by the Union Cabinet regarding the decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 denomination. I also sought to know whether the government had sought people’s views on the issue of demonetisation prior to making the decision because the NDA Government had taken steps to consult people on several other important policy issues in the past. I have not received any reply from the CPIO,

Performance of anti-corruption departments, courts receive cursory attention

By Venkatesh Nayak* 9th December has been designated by the United Nations as International Anti-Corruption Day. Even though India ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2011, this year, International Anti-Corruption Day went by uncelebrated and in fact almost unnoticed. According to a UN estimate, every year, US$ 1 trillion is paid in bribes and US$ 2.6 trillion are stolen through corruption – a sum equivalent to more than 5% of the global GDP. In 2015, Transparency International (TI) rated India 76thamong 168 countries surveyed for people’s perceptions about how corrupt they perceived their governments to be. Countries like Bhutan (27), Chile (23), Ghana (56), Jordan (45), Namibia (45), Panama (72), Rwanda (44), Saudi Arabia (48), Senegal (61), Seychelles (40), South Africa (61) and Uruguay (21) scored better than India on TI’s corruption perceptions index (CPI). In the BRICS grouping, India keeps company with Brazil at 76th place while China is at 83 and Russia fa

Cancel environment clearance of defaulting polluting industries

Text of the letter by senior activists of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant to the secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India: The Effluent Channel Project (ECP) of Vadodara passes through 24 villages and prime agricultural land which is known as the ‘Vegetable Basket of Gujarat’. The 55.6 km long effluent channel was commissioned in the year of 1983 to carry “treated” industrial effluent from industries near Vadodara to estuary of River Mahi, Gulf of Cambay. It carries the effluent of Nandesari Industrial Estate and Vadodara Industrial Complex and later on from 1995 onwards number of polluting industries started coming up on along both side of ECP. Since 2004 the villages around the ECP have experienced ground water contamination at alarming rates. The pollution began because of the seepage, leaching, leaking and overflowing of effluent from the ECP and later from illegal untreated effluent discharged by num

Pellet guns in J&K: Disclosure of sale data not in public interest, says Ordnance Factory

By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers will remember my despatch from September this year , describing my efforts to find out details about the sale and the efficacy of anti-riot weapons- particularly pellet guns which have caused severe injuries to hundreds of youth in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir. I had sought information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) about the quantum and price of sale of pellet guns and cartridges as well reports of any studies conducted about the efficacy of such weapons and ammunition on human beings. The RTI application originally sent to the Ordnance Factory Board Kolkata (OFB), landed up with the Khadki Ordnance Factory (OFK). Rejecting the RTI application, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), OFK, had invoked the ground of “defence interest of the State” under Section 8(1)(a) and also claimed that the information was in the nature of commercial confidence, trade secret and/or intellectual property and disclosure would adversely affec

Demonetization: Giant loopholes kept open for unscrupulous elements?

By Venkatesh Nayak* On 8th November, 2016, the Government of India announced its decision to pull high value currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination out of circulation, with immediate effect. A detailed procedure was notified in the Official Gazette explaining how people holding the demonetised currency notes may redeem the value of the demonetised notes. The Government also permitted people to exchange over the counter, the demonetised notes for the new series of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500 notes printed, but to a limited extent. Memories of a similar decision to demonetise high value currency notes taken by the Janata Government in 1978 are being revived by scholars and lawyers writing in the print and electronic media. Noted human rights lawyer and former Additional Solicitor General of India, Ms. Indira Jaisingh has recently commented on the legality of the manner in which the Government has gone about this demonetisation decision. A bunch of petitions have been filed acro