The alleged appeasement of sarpanches by the Ashok Gehlot government may continue. The committee set up to consider the demands of agitating sarpanches seeking material purchasing power, among other things, in MGNREGS might concede the demands "though in a fresh perspective." According to sources, the committee which met on Wednesday, is working on a policy that would give sole right to the panchayats for issuing tenders for purchasing materials needed...

When noted economist Jean Dreze visited Surguja in Chhattisgarh a decade ago, its utterly non-functional Public Distribution System (PDS) looked like especially “designed to fail.” The National Advisory Committee member has written in a recent article that the ration shop owners illegally sold the grain meant for the poor and “hunger haunted the land.” But that was then. The economist was pleasantly shocked to see the transformation this time. “Ten years...

Almost one-third of Indians are "utterly corrupt" and half are "borderline", the outgoing head of the country's corruption watchdog has said, blaming increased wealth for much of the problem. Pratyush Sinha, who retired as India's Central Vigilance Commissioner this week, said the worst part of his "thankless job" was observing how corruption had increased as people became more materialistic. "When we were growing up I remember if somebody was corrupt,...

The chief minister Ashok Gehlot said information technology (IT) is an effective tool to deliver sensitive, transparent and responsible administration which would reduce chances of corruption through transparency. Gehlot was addressing participants at the inauguration of the two-day e-Governance Leadership Meet at SMS Convention Centre on Wednesday. The meet has been organised for the state's political and policy officials under the national e-governance programme with the help of the National...

Once lauded as a model state for implementation of MGNREGA — the flagship programme of the UPA government — the state is on the backfoot nowadays as far as the scheme is concerned. Even as the Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress try to extract political mileage out of sarpanches agitation, at stake is the very scheme that has not only reduced the migration of labourers to other states but...