-The Indian Express Seven farmers on Wednesday sat on a hunger strike in Dharamheri village to protest the construction of Hansi-Butana toe wall and to demand measures to check floods in the area. BKU (Ekta Dakaounda) Patiala district president Darshan Pal said that chain hunger strike would be observed till September 16 where alternate group of farmers would observe the strike daily. He added that if their demands were not met,...
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Dividing the poor by TK Rajalakshmi
The flawed Bill on food security has not received the kind of publicity that the Lokpal Bill has, but that does not diminish its significance. “THIS government has divided everything and everyone. There are different cards for different sections of the poor. If my employer, taking pity on me, gives me an old television, I am not entitled to a yellow card [Below Poverty Line card]. My son who is...
More »Arvind Kejriwal, social activist and Team Anna member interviewed by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Interview with social activist and Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal. THE organisational abilities of Arvind Kejriwal exhibited during the recent Jan Lokpal Bill movement earned him the sobriquet “Field Marshal of a peaceful agitation”. The social activist and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner played a significant role in conceiving the slogans, the symbolism and the trajectory of the movement. He is credited with anticipating some of the moves of the government...
More »‘Omnibus Lokpal will not serve purpose' by ML Melly Maitreyi
The amendments to Lokpal Bill, 2011 submitted to the Standing Committee of Parliament by the civic society group represented by Jayaprakash Narayan of Lok Satta envisage Lokpal's jurisdiction over the Prime Minister and creation of strong Lokayuktas in States. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the versions of Lokpal Bill suggested by the three civil society groups, including that of Dr. Narayan (JP), w ould...
More »In 8 yrs, Cong income up by seven times by Gopu Mohan
What can power do to a political party’s financial health? Quite a lot, it seems. An RTI query by a Chennai-based activist shows that the income of India’s longest-ruling national party, the Indian National Congress, increased from Rs 69.55 crore in 2002-03 to a whopping Rs 467.57 crore in 2010-11. Documents accessed by activist V Gopalakrishnan show that the jump is even more evident when figures from 2003-04 are compared with...
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