-The Hindu Held to account by the Supreme Court, the Central government is using opaque methods to change the key provisions of the employment guarantee scheme and make it targeted instead of universal. There is a pithy saying in Hindi that the elephant has two sets of teeth, one for show and the other to eat. This seems an apt description of the approach of the Narendra Modi government towards the implementation...

-Newslaundry.com A new study shows how both state and central governments flouted SC orders in drought hit states Thirty three crore people were affected in 10 states by the drought in 2015-16. However, despite Supreme Court orders to provide subsidised food grain and continue mid day meal scheme during summer holidays, the centre and the state governments failed to do so. The court’s order had come on May 13, during the Swaraj...

-LiveLaw.in The Centre told the Supreme Court bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and NV Ramana, on August 1, of its inability to comply with its direction regarding constitution of the National Disaster Mitigation Fund. The bench had directed the Centre on May 11 to constitute the Fund in terms of Section 47 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.   The Additional Solicitor General, P.V.Narasimha told the bench that Section 47 has...

-TheWire.in Swaraj Abhiyan founder Prashant Bhushan discusses the Essar tapes and other scams, the role of whistleblowers and his fallout with Arvind Kejriwal. Celebrated lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan has just notched up another victory with the Supreme Court-appointed panel decreeing there was prima facie evidence that former CBI director Ranjit Sinha had attempted to influence the investigation into the coal block allocation scam under the then UPA government. The court’s observation was based...

-The Hindu It has become irrelevant after the crippling budget cuts After facing a massive budget cut last year, the future of the Panchayati Raj Ministry continues to look bleak. After the BJP government shuttered two of its key programmes — the Backward Regions Grants Fund (BRGF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) — several officials at the Ministry feel it would soon be closed down and turned into a...