-The Hindu "Doing away with Social Impact Assessment for irrigation projects not acceptable" The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) on Wednesday hit out at the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance charging them with "colluding" to dilute some of the progressive provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013. Alleging a "quid pro quo" between the UPA and the NDA for...

-The Indian Express   Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Right to Fair Compensation and transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013. The proposed law, which will replace the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 that suffers from various shortcomings, including silence on the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced, stipulates mandatory consent of at least 70 per cent of landowners for acquiring land for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: A working group of the Sonia-Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has called for the creation of dedicated human resource departments at central ministries dealing with social programmes to ensure better delivery of the government's flagship schemes. The working group has suggested that the proposed HR wings should be entrusted with the responsibility of framing guidelines for recruitment and training of frontline workers, besides laying down key performance indicators...

-Live Mint Abhijit Sen says any public-funded effort to deliver a public service should be under the RTI New Delhi: Any public-funded effort such as a public-private partnership project to deliver a public service or purpose should be under the Right to Information (RTI), Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said on Monday. He was speaking at an event to mark eight years of the landmark legislation that enables citizens to demand transparent information...

-PTI New Delhi: A bill seeking to amend the Right To Information (RTI) Act to shield political parties from providing information under the transparency law is scheduled to come up for discussion in Lok Sabha on Monday. The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2013 was introduced on August 12 in the Lower House by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy but could not be discussed amid repeated...