Even as the government indicated after the last meeting of the Lokpal Bill joint drafting committee (JDC) that it would initiate drafting the Bill on agreed points, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) on Saturday raised several questions about the procedures being adopted by the panel, as well on the “official” public consultation that should take place. Discounting the lokpalbillconsultations.org website, launched by the panel's civil society members...

Within two months of constitution of the joint drafting committee on Jan Lokpal Bill, a civil society group has termed deliberations as “non-inclusive” in a clear indication of growing dissent over the working of the committee. In a similar letter written to two co-chairpersons of the committee, finance minister Pranab Mukerjee and Shanti Bhushan, who represents civil society, the National Campaign for People’s Right To Information (NCPRI) said even though the...

-The Hindu   The National Campaign for People's Right to Information has expressed its concern at the reported official move to exclude agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) from the Right to Information Act. In a statement signed by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Prashant Bhushan, Venkatesh Nayak and Anjali Bharadwaj, among others, the NCPRI described the proposed exclusion...

Do you know that the highest number of corruption cases are registered in Maharashtra (4566) and the lowest in West Bengal (only 9) between 2000 and 2009? Do you also want to know how much property has been recovered from the corrupt in different states of India in the past ten years? But how does one systematically track corruption? How to get details of the number of cases going on...

Civil society groups and organisations on Tuesday condemned attempts to malign co-chairman of the Lokpal Bill joint drafting committee Shanti Bhushan and its member Prashant Bhushan. Expressing “full solidarity,” the organisations said they would oppose all efforts to sideline the central issue of establishing a strong and effective mechanism to tackle endemic corruption in the country. Describing Mr. Shanti Bhushan as “a tireless defender of civil liberties and the rule of law,”...