| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. On 15th anniversary of RTI Act, report finds major gaps in implementation Fifteen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force, more than 2.2 lakh cases are pending at the Central and State Information Commissions, which are the final courts of appeal under the transparency law. The increasing backlog is exacerbated by the fact that most Commissions are functioning at reduced capacity, including the Central Information Commission (CIC) which has been headless since August. This is according to a report card brought out by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the Centre for Equity Studies to mark the anniversary of the Act on Monday and which found that Maharashtra had the highest number of pending appeals, with over 59,000 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh (47,923) and the CIC (35,653). For example, at the current rate of disposal, the Odisha Commission would take more than seven years to dispose of all pending complaints, while the CIC would take more than two years, the report said. Odisha is functioning with just four commissioners, while Rajasthan has only three. Jharkhand and Tripura have no commissioners at all, and have been defunct for months. The CIC has no chief, and only five commissioners. Under the provisions of the law, every commission should have a chief and up to 10 commissioners. The analysis also found that government officials face hardly any punishment for violating the law. Analysing data from 16 commissions in 2019-20, report found that penalties were imposed in only 2.2% of cases that were disposed of, despite previous analysis showing a rate of about 59% violations which should have triggered the process of penalty imposition. "Non-imposition of penalties in deserving cases by commissions sends a signal to public authorities that violating the law will not invite any serious consequences. This destroys the basic framework of incentives built into the RTI law and promotes a culture of impunity," said the report. Andhra CM writes to Chief Justice, alleges that Justice Raman is influencing High Court Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to Chief Justice of India Sharad Aravind Bobde, alleging that Supreme Court judge Justice NV Ramana had been influencing the sittings of the state High Court, including the roster of some judges. In a letter, dated October 6, Reddy alleged that cases important to the Opposition Telugu Desam Party were "allocated to a few judges". The chief minister also highlighted that Ramana was a legal adviser and additional advocate-general in the previous Chandrababu Naidu-led government. Reddy urged Bobde to consider initiating steps to ensure that Andhra Pradesh's judicial neutrality was maintained. The High Court has gagged the media from reporting on a land deal case in Amaravati concerning a former legal officer and others. Hathras case: CBI removes FIR from website Just hours after posting an FIR and a press statement on taking over the investigation into the Hathras gang rape and murder of a Dalit woman, the Central Bureau of Investigation today removed the same from its website. The CBI formally took over the case after the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued a notification authorising the agency to investigate the case, and registered an FIR early on Sunday under Section 307 (Attempt to murder), 376(D) (Gang rape), and 302 (Murder) of IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.  A participant holds a placard during a protest in New Delhi on October 11, 2020 to condemn the Hathras gang rape and murder. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of CBI's Ghaziabad Unit mentioned "Rape, attempt to murder, gang rape and Murder (other)" as suspected offences in the case. Though the FIR and a press release were published on the agency's website, the FIR was later removed. The link in the press release now leads to a bank fraud case. Late in the afternoon, a fresh release was posted, stating that the agency had registered a case "against an accused and taken over the investigation of the case, earlier registered vide CC no-136/2020 at Police Station Chandpa, District-Hathras (Uttar Pradesh) on a complaint. The complainant had alleged that on 14.09.2020, the accused tried to strangulate his sister in the millet field. The case has been registered by CBI on the request of Uttar Pradesh Government and further from Government of India." Health experts warn against increased use of sanitisers, antibiotics Health experts at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) warned that the increased use of antibiotics and the widespread use of hand sanitisers and antimicrobial soaps, which has especially increased multi-fold during the Covid-19 pandemic, can worsen the situation of antimicrobial resistance. Stating this at a webinar on "Antibiotic resistance: Renewed Fight" earlier this week, Rama Chaudhry, Head, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, Delhi said antibiotic resistant organisms have become rigidly established in our environment with many infections failing to respond to available antimicrobials.  Hand sanitiser "Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest challenges of modern medicine. This antimicrobial resistance mounts problems beyond the geographical as well as species barriers and can transmit from animals to humans. AMR needs to be addressed in totality by all sectors including healthcare, veterinary and agricultural domains. This is where one health approach comes into place,'' she said in the webinar jointly organised by AIIMS and the American Society for Microbiology. Experts added that the pandemic has jolted the entire world with its reach and scale and has impacted the local health facilities. "We are seeing more hospitalisation due to COVID-related complications with all our resources being focused primarily on dealing with it while many other important health issues such as AMR and other health programmes have taken a back seat," she said. The Health Ministry on Sunday noted that the recoveries have crossed the milestone of 60 lakh (60,77,976). New type of test for Covid diagnosis soon, Health Minister announces Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that his Ministry will soon roll out the FELUDA paper strip test for Covid-19 diagnosis. This has been developed by CSIR-IGIB and has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India for a commercial launch. He added that the test showed 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity. "This compares favourably to the ICMR's current acceptation criteria of RT-PCR Kit of at least 95% sensitivity and at least 99% specificity," Dr Vardhan said, adding however, that "an exact date on the availability cannot be specified yet."  Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan during the fifth edition of Sunday Samvaad. Twitter/@drharshvardhan The Health Minister, speaking in his weekly social media interaction Sunday Samvaad also warned people not to put their lives at risk during the upcoming festive season. "There is no need to congregate in large numbers to prove your faith or your religion... You can pray to your gods at your homes. I would suggest that all of you celebrate festivals with your families," he said. Speaking about a Covid-19 vaccine, he said it is anticipated that supplies would initially be available in limited quantities. "In a huge country like India, it is critical to prioritise vaccine delivery based on various factors such as risk of exposure, co-morbidity among various population groups, the mortality rate among Covid-19 cases...," he said. GST council to discuss compensation issue again The GST Council in its meeting on Monday is likely to discuss the suggestion of non-BJP ruled States of setting up a ministerial panel to develop consensus on the issue of compensation, the Press Trust of India reports. The Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising of State Finance Ministers, will for the third time in a row discuss the issue of funding the shortfall of Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of States. While some Opposition ruled States are demanding that a Group of Ministers be set up to arrive at a decision on the mechanism for funding compensation shortfall, BJP ruled States, which have already opted for the borrowing option given by the Centre, are of the view that they should be given a go ahead so that they can get money quickly. In its previous meeting last week, the Council had decided to extend the surcharge on taxes on luxury goods such as cars and tobacco products beyond June 2022, but failed to reach a consensus on ways to compensate States for loss of tax revenue. The projected total compensation shortfall in current fiscal stands at ₹2.35 lakh crore. Secure leadership of state with Nitish, says BJP chief Nadda BJP chief JP Nadda, in Bihar to strategize for his party's poll campaign, said today that the Nitish Kumar government took care of the people of Bihar amid the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that it is important that the leadership of the State is secured with him. Addressing an election rally at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Gaya, Mr. Nadda listed the development works done by the NDA government at the Centre in the last six years in the State. "Nitish Kumar took care of the people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial assistance was also provided by his government to those outside the state," he said. "Leadership of India is secured in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it is important that the leadership of Bihar is secured with Nitish Kumar," he added. Covid watch — Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India has crossed 6 million and stands at 71,06,729 at the time of publishing this newsletter with the death toll at 1,09,125. In Brief: The Congress on Sunday announced several key committees for the Bihar Assembly elections, with party general secretary Randeep Surjewala as the chairperson of the Election Management and Co-ordination Committee. While senior leader Mohan Prakash has been made the convenor of this panel, the 14-member election management and coordination panel includes senior leaders like Tariq Anwar, Shatrughan Sinha, Meira Kumar, Kirti Azad, Shakeel Ahmed and Sanjay Nirupam. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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