Team Anna on Thursday pressed for as many as 34 fresh additions to the proposed Lokpal bill that have already been incorporated in the Uttarakhand Lokayukata bill and renewed their demand that constitutional amendments bringing violation of citizens' charter and conduct of MPs in Parliament within the purview of the Lokpal also be introduced. The additions include widening the definition of corruption to include individuals who have given or taken benefit...

Preparing to fulfil one of the main demands of Anna Hazare, the UPA government is in the process of finalising the draft legislation for the Citizens Charter whereby every citizen will have the right to time-bound delivery of goods and services. Titled Citizens Charter for Committed Supply of Goods and Provision of Services by Public Authorities Bill, 2011, the draft legislation provides for multi-layered grievance redressal mechanism from panchayat to national...

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai in his address to recruits at the National Police Academy sought to enlist them in his campaign. BAGEHOT'S classic explains why and how a genre of civil servants mushroomed in India latterly as executive power, authority and prestige declined. None of them had earlier revealed a particularly strong spine. T.N. Seshan bared his traits once he was appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). Others need not...

-The Hindu   If the proposed Lokpal Bill intends to address corruption in high places, the UPA government, as part of its anti-graft campaign, plans to introduce a Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill to complement it in the coming winter session of Parliament. At a joint press conference, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V. Narayanswamy stressed that it would go beyond the...

A report by an expert group on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has suggested wide-ranging institutional reforms to regulate the public and the private sectors to ensure assured quality and rational pricing of healthcare services. The group, set up by the Planning Commission to develop a blue print and investment plan to meet the human resource requirements to achieve health for all by 2020, focuses on rational use of drugs. The extensive...