-PTI Former IB chief Rajiv Mathur on Thursday took over as the new Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission. He was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mathur, 64, succeeds Sushma Singh, who demitted office on Wednesday, as the sixth chief of the transparency watchdog. His name was recommended by a three-member selection panel headed by outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "My priority would...
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Small States, big problems-Ajay Gudavarthy
-The Hindu Even a cursory look at how Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have fared will tell us how the mere formation of a smaller State is no guarantee for better lives for those groups for whom these States have been created Smaller States have been the new political mode of addressing basic issues that were otherwise left unresolved. However, fighting for a new state and reconstructing on a more sustainable democratic content...
More »A law to end targeted violence-Harsh Mander
-Live Mint India needs a law to check the menace of communal and caste violence. The arguments against it are spurious Among free India's gravest failures-along with its inability to end hunger, pervasive poverty and discrimination-is the continued targeting of people with violence and arson only because of their faith or caste. This periodic blood-letting, mass sexual assault and arson leaves a trail of great suffering of innocents, and repeated assaults...
More »A punitive sexual security apparatus-Ratna Kapur
-The Hindu While the definition of rape is now expanded, the new enactment has taken us dangerously in the direction of a sexual security regime than toward more rights A year after the gruesome gang rape and murder of the young woman on the streets of Delhi comes a moment to pause and reflect on the gains and losses that triggered the response to this event and several others involving issues of...
More »Mind the legal gap -Upendra Baxi
-The Indian Express The Justice Ganguly case shows up some lacunae. For one, the sexual harassment act will have to be changed to extend to unpaid interns. There is immense pressure from women activists, the media and some political parties for retired Supreme Court justice, A.K. Ganguly, to resign as the chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission for allegedly harassing a young intern. The courage of the young intern in...
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