Even as the government indicated after the last meeting of the lokpal bill joint drafting committee (JDC) that it would initiate drafting the Bill on agreed points, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) on Saturday raised several questions about the procedures being adopted by the panel, as well on the “official” public consultation that should take place. Discounting the lokpalbillconsultations.org website, launched by the panel's civil society members...

“Just as the civil society has been involved in the formulation of a lokpal bill, so should people's representatives be allowed to participate in framing a new, comprehensive law on Development Planning that includes resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by projects.” To intensify stir This is the demand of pradhans of several western Uttar Pradesh villages, who, along with along with representatives of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) spoke...

The Jan Lokpal is being vested with sweeping powers, which are susceptible to misuse. The centralised structure of the Lokpal will be ill-suited for sorting out governance deficit. People will be confined to being complainants and applicants. There is need to make the Jan Lokpal people-centric FOR many who quite rightly guessed that the lokpal bill drafted by the government would be a non-starter, the alternative merited automatic support. However, little...

Some time before the Manmohan Singh regime imploded in the mass of corruption scandals that are currently regaling television audiences, Manish Tiwari, the Congress member of parliament and spokesperson, was participating in a televised programme on political parties and their attitudes to corruption. Someone asked why the Congress had given a parliamentary ticket to Mohammed Azharuddin, the former Indian cricket captain found guilty of match-fixing and banned for life from...

Arms deals, sensitive organizations like the Indian space agency besides the prime minister will be under the jurisdiction of the proposed Lokpal or national ombudsman, N. Santosh Hegde, a member of the 10-member drafting panel said Monday. The panel proposed 'to bring arms deals, organisations like ISRO, besides the prime minister under the Lokpal purview', Hegde, Karnataka ombudsman and a civil society member of the drafting panel, said at a meeting...