-The Telegraph   Law minister Salman Khurshid today unveiled a slew of bills to be taken up in Parliament’s winter session to demonstrate the government’s commitment to fighting graft, other than the Lokpal Bill that he said would address the “concerns of the common man”. The whistle-blowers’ bill, sports bill and the judicial accountability bills are among those on the agenda, the minister told a news conference in the run-up to the session...

Sister Valsa John may have incurred the wrath of a group of local criminals for seeking justice for a raped tribal girl and that may have been the immediate provocation for her brutal murder on Tuesday. According to a senior Pakur district official, Valsa had sought an Appointment with Pakur deputy commissioner after the Amrapara police refused to lodge an FIR against the alleged rapists a couple of days back. Deputy commissioner...

With the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) insisting on providing separate legal entitlements to some sections — pregnant women, lactating mothers, homeless, destitute and disaster affected households — in the proposed food security law, the Food Ministry is set to insist on state governments sharing the cost to fund the provisions for this special category of beneficiaries. Sources in the Food Ministry said the ministry has inserted “cost-sharing provisions” in...

The new Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju, wants to make it an instrument of mediation in addition to adjudication.   THE Appointment of Justice Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as Chairman of the Press Council of India is about the best thing that has happened to that body in a long while. It is no exaggeration to say that the PCI commands little prestige...

Warning that delays in wage payments were crippling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-affected districts, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh outlined his Ministry's latest attempts to jumpstart development in these areas. In the past, Mr. Ramesh has spoken of prioritising development in the country's 60 ‘Left Wing Extremism' [LWE] districts as a crucial prong in his government's battle against the guerilla army of...