In 1974, I started to expose Corporate Corruption and initially Economic Times supported me by publishiung my regular interviews on Corporate Corruption, based on the true facts. But once a large size interview on big manipulation in cost of production etc., regarding one Monopoly House, were published, its all the Group Newspapers, were given large size Advertiosements, without any commercial purposes, but to influence the management of the Group of Newspapers. The most honest dedicated Journalist Late Shri Samarjeet Ghosh was whimsically transferred from kolkata to Pune and I was blacklisted from all the Newspapers belongs to Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which still prevails, against my fundamental right to express.
Under Right to Information I have collected various important information regarding corruption at high levels. But, not find any place in Times of India.
Milap Choraria
Bring corporates under RTI: Nitish Kumar
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bring-corporates-under-RTI-Nitish-Kumar/articleshow/10371528.cms
Aruna Roy blasts PM Manmohan Singh for RTI remark
Bring corporates under RTI: Nitish Kumar:-
NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday made a strong push for expanding the scope of Right to Information (RTI) Act, demanding that corporate sector and public-private-partnership (PPP) projects be brought under it, and joined the debate that started with the UPA expressing misgivings about the application of the transparency law it had enacted itself.Delivering the valedictory address at the Sixth Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission, Kumar asked: "Companies have shareholders' money as well as investment from institutions. What is wrong if information about them is given?"
He also made a pitch for PPP projects being brought under the RTI's ambit.
Kumar's argument for expanding RTI's scope comes when the government seems to have developed misgivings about the transparency law. The new-found reservations of the UPA which not so long ago touted the RTI as its accomplishment were articulated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday in his inaugural address at the Central Information Convention.
However, the Bihar CM, who called the RTI a revolutionary measure, took an empathetic view of the fears associated with its application. "When a new thing comes it gives problem," said Kumar. Urging the authorities not to fight shy of parting with information, he said that governments would gradually get used to transparency.
Saying that the prevailing culture of secrecy leads authorities to resist even sharing even innocuous information with people, he said dissemination of information could actually help governments do a course correction. Social sector schemes with huge expenditure get strengthened if information about their implementation is in public domain.
He requested RTI activists to work towards a central Right to Service law that he has implemented in the state.
Dwelling at length on the Right to Service law that has been enacted in Bihar, Kumar said it is law that complements RTI and is helping improve services in the state. Amid applause, Kumar told CIC and information commissioners that they should not concentrate only on disposing appeals but also advise government on how it can be improved further. "Times have changed. We have to get used to it. There is RTI, media has also changed. What you say gets recorded immediately and beamed to the world. No point denying what you said. Better think before you speak," he said amid applause.
Kumar offered to host a national conference of CIC, state information commissioners, RTI activists and international experts in Patna. "I want to learn from you. If Bihar lags behind, the country lags behind," he added.
Aruna Roy blasts PM Manmohan Singh for RTI remark:-
PANAJI: Transparency advocate Aruna Roy on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement saying that the Right To Information Act was adversely affecting deliberations in the government and deterring honest officials from expressing their views on file."The Prime Minister has made a statement that I completely disagree with. My seven-year period in the government was fraught with corruption," said Roy, considered by many as one of the architects of the RTI Act. The founder member of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), who resigned from the IAS in 1974, was speaking at a seminar on 'Strengthening participatory democracy: Role of RTI' at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.
Countering the PM's reasons for bureaucratic inefficiency, the Magsaysay award winner said the killings of RTI activists was of more concern than the RTI affecting government functioning. "I'm much more concerned about the lives of RTI activists being killed. What have you done to protect our lives?" she sought to know from the Prime Minister.
Stating that even earlier, bureaucrats were not making file notings, Roy said, "No one wanted to take the onus (to make a noting) if it was a critical issue."
Stating that transparency benefits the system, Roy said, "We reject the suggestion that transparency makes bureaucrats inefficient. The government has always been inefficient. Papers accessed by us through RTI have proved this."
She said that transparency actually helps honest bureaucrats and felt that due to RTI, clean babus can make notings in the confidence that disclosure of the file notings under RTI would vindicate the stands they take.
"In the last six years, information received by the people has created upheaval in governance. What has upset the system is the scams. Instead of welcoming transparency, the persistence for amendments is wrong," she added.
Nikhil Dey, co-convener of NCPRI, too, was critical of the proposal for amendments. "We completely oppose amendments in RTI. The Prime Minister is saying the RTI affects bureaucratic functioning, but it is the opposite. It is a great benefit for honest officers as earlier their notings were being hidden."
"The government has consistently said that amendments will be done only after putting them in the public domain. It should not slip in amendments like it did the first time," Dey added.
Roy also lambasted the removal of the CBI from the purview of the RTI. "How can the government talk of a Lokpal on one side and remove the CBI from the purview of the RTI?" she wondered. "Eighty per cent of cases investigated by the CBI are corruption cases," Roy added.
"The chairman of the Planning Commission has said all public-private-partnerships will also be outside the purview of the RTI. How can this be done when the state provides facilities like electricity and water to these projects?" she asked.
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