-The Economic Times Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to re-consider the idea of creating a new category under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, for the rural employment scheme. He has said that the revisit can be done even as the special leave petition (SLP) process moves forward. The Centre has already decided to file a SLP in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka HC's s...
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Intel bodies can’t snub graft RTI
-The Pioneer The Central Information Commission has ordered that intelligence agencies like National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) cannot withhold information under the RTI Act on corruption-related matters and related in-house investigation details. The landmark decision is a serious blow to intelligence and security agencies, which often reject applications under RTI on corruption- related issues. In this case, CIC has directed NTRO to provide information on the in-house probe details on irregularities and corrupt...
More »Understanding the PDS by Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera
A survey in nine States shows that they have quietly revived and expanded their public distribution system. AT a time when the Union Cabinet cleared the draft of the national food security Bill after dilly-dallying over it comes a compelling piece of information: many State governments have quietly revived and expanded the public distribution system in their States. That, at any rate, is one of the main findings of a...
More »Muslim groups see ‘minorities' quota as a googly by Vidya Subrahmaniam
The quantum is well below expectations of Muslims who have been pressing for exclusive reservation of 10% The Union government's much-anticipated quota-within-quota sop for minorities as a whole has left Muslim groups confused and groping for answers. On Thursday, the Union Cabinet marked off 4.5 percentage points from within the 27 per cent OBC Central quota, allocating the share to religious minorities, among them Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Jains. (In the 2001...
More »‘CBI's autonomy seriously compromised' by Vinay Kumar
A day after the introduction of the anti-graft Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011, in the Lok Sabha, sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday felt that the agency's autonomy of investigation had been “seriously compromised”. CBI sources said the Bill did not seem to confer greater autonomy to the investigative agency—one of the focal points of the civil society's agitation for bringing about a strong, effective and credible Lokpal...
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