The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body  that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year. Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court...

For 55-year-old Mohimuddin of Goroimari, which falls in the Chaygaon Assembly constituency in lower Assam's Kamrup district, the protection of minorities from undue harassment in the name of identification of foreigners was the prime issue until a few years ago. This time round, he is more worried about the backwardness of his village coupled with price hike. A poor peasant with seven mouths to feed, Mohimuddin says the prime demand of...

Two companies based in Mumbai and Delhi have allegedly duped scores of farmers of more than 2,000 bigha of agricultural land spread across several villages near Phalodi town in Jodhpur district. In one case, the entire land of Mandali village measuring 632 bigha, belonging mostly to the Rebari tribe, has been sold. Though the district administration has ordered an inquiry, complicity of officials is not ruled out since the land was...

A review of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) implementation in the state revealed "poor performance" by the Congress government, according to North East Social Trust (NEST), an NGO. With barely two days left for the state to go for the first phase of assembly polls, a study conducted by NEST, found that out of 3,749,672 household provided with job cards under MGNREGA, a staggering 24,36,848 households did...

Amid technical and infrastructural constraints, Maharashtra has rolled out 1.2 million Aadhaars, but the beneficiaries have been able to make little use of these numbers Ashok Bhil, a 25-year-old graduate from Navalpur, 7 Km from Tembhli, is disappointed with the way the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is rolling out Aadhaar in Maharashtra. Last September, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government chose Tembhli, a small village in the predominantly tribal Nandurbar...