-Outlook The NDA seems bent on subverting the RTI Act. Is the slow dismembering of the CIC part of the plan? We Have No Recall For the first time since its inception, CIC's functions expropriated by the govt A search committee set up to appoint a new CIC chief says meeting details cannot be revealed; "highly confidential" RTI appeals pertaining to prime depts...
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Undermined -Srestha Banerjee
-Down to Earth Ordinance to reform the mining sector will do more harm than good SOON AFTER President Pranab Mukherjee signed the ordinance to amend the archaic Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 1957, Union minister for steel and mines, Narendra Singh Tomar, announced it is a revolutionary step towards reviving the country's mining sector. His ministry highlighted that the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015 will address...
More »Budget session 'surgery' on govt mind
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre is weighing what appears a never-used parliamentary option to be able to re-promulgate the land acquisition ordinance before it lapses - having two budget sessions instead of a two-leg one. Ordinarily, the budget session is conducted in two halves, separated by a one-month recess. The first leg this year was to end on March 20 and the second leg to begin on April 20 and continue...
More »How the Budget short-changed states' social security schemes -Nitin Sethi & Ishan Bakshi
-Business Standard States will now have to spend from their pockets to keep their social-sector schemes going The 2015-16 Budget seems to have broken the contract between the Centre and the states on sharing the economic burden for delivering social security. The Centre's assistance to the states for social sector schemes has come down from a budgeted Rs 3.56 lakh crore in FY15 to Rs 2.20 lakh crore in FY16. Effectively, while the...
More »Panchayati raj ministry turning irrelevant under PM Narendra Modi regime -Nidhi Sharma
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The panchayati raj ministry, created by the UPA government to drive Rajiv Gandhi's idea of empowering gram sabhas, is struggling to remain relevant under the Narendra Modi regime. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget presentation, slashed the panchayati raj ministry's plan outlay to a meagre Rs 94 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal, and transferred its flagship schemes - the Backward Regions grants...
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