-The Hindu The Budget Session of the Indian Parliament will be held from Feb. 23 to May 13, 2016 with 31 sittings in all. The agenda for this government, caught in the midst of various political storms such as Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the crisis at Jawaharlal Nehru University, would be to draw consensus among all MPs for 12 essential Bills. Most of them — listed below — have already been...
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PM's fave village scheme sputters -Anita Joshua
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, a pet project of the Prime Minister, has found few takers in its second phase with only 32 of over 750 MPs identifying panchayats to adopt: 24 from the Lok Sabha and six from the Rajya Sabha. Some sent in entries after the January 31 deadline. Narendra Modi adopted Nagepur, a village in his Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency on February 17. In the...
More »Bassi for Information Commissioner: 'It will be a sad day for democracy' -Satish Nandgaonkar
-The Hindu Mumbai: Ex-Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi says a transparent procedure should be followed in the selection process. Alarmed at speculation that Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi could be appointed Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission, RTI activist and former CIC Shailesh Gandhi on Thursday shot off a letter to the Centre objecting to the appointment. In a letter to Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, Mr. Gandhi said: “There are news reports...
More »Over 50 former MPs overstay in govt houses, owe nearly Rs 1 crore rent -Moushumi Das Gupta
-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Nearly five dozen former parliamentarians owe close to Rs 1 crore as rental charges for overstaying in government accommodation long after leaving office, a Right to Information (RTI) reply has revealed. While former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, one-time India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin and actress Jaya Pradha are among the defaulters, former Rajya Sabha member Gireesh Kumar tops the list as he owes the...
More »The 'making' of rural India -Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh
-Deccan Herald Just recall the scene in parliament when the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005. In Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee put forth the motion – “Those in favour, say aye” – a unanimous chorus rose from the packed Lok Sabha. “Those against, say no,” – there was dead silence. “I think the ayes have it!” he said – and a seminal, landmark legislation became a reality. As then...
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