-The Times of India With the Bhilwara pattern social audit of schemes under the MGNREGA shelved in the state, the alternative method is also coming under political pressure. A recent application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed letters from a minister and an MLA urging the social audit directorate not to conduct audit of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) schemes in villages falling in their constituencies....
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Lokpal to have constitutional status, ‘more power than EC’
-The Economic Times The government on Tuesday said it would confer constitutional status on the proposed Lokpal , embracing the idea mooted by Rahul Gandhi. "We are working on a very strong Lokpal bill. A Lokpal bill that will come with a constitutional amendment . That amendment will give the Lokpal the status of a constitutional authority," law minister Salman Khurshid told PTI on Tuesday. Khurshid, who gave Rahul the credit for the...
More »RTI applicant to pay for getting information by Ashutosh Shukla
In a landmark order, the state chief information commissioner told an applicant to pay for information that should have been given to him free of cost. Provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act mention that an applicant cannot be charged for information if it is not provided within 30 days if there is no valid explanation given for the delay. An applicant also cannot be charged if he is not...
More »And the pay-to-print saga resumes by P Sainath
The Delhi High Court has handed both the political circuit and the media a ticking parcel with its judgment in the Ashok Chavan case. It shouldn't be long before we learn what's ticking. (What's not ticking is the media. Subdued quiet seems the norm.) The former Maharashtra Chief Minister had challenged the power of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to go into the truth or falsity of his 2009...
More »On austerity drive, PM shoots down ministers' foreign trips by Diptosh Majumdar
Indian ministers' foreign travel plans have been grounded by the government's austerity drive. Till July 1 this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had turned down as many as 24 foreign trip applications from members of his ministerial council, compared to 10 such refusals in the whole of 2010. The change is stark considering that the PM had earlier been obliging almost all his colleagues. In 2009, after the UPA returned to...
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