The United Progressive Alliance government may have shown a willingness to draft a new Lokpal Bill, but it is dragging its feet on a proposal to strengthen the public institution that has done so much to expose wrongdoings in public life: the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG). For the past two years, the CAG has been pushing the Finance Ministry — its nodal ministry — for crucial changes in the 1971 Audit...
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CST armoury not a prohibited area, reveals RTI query by Meena Menon
MiD-Day's Akela was arrested under the Official Secrets Act over exposé on poor storage there WhileMiD-Day journalist Tarakant Dwivedi alias Akela was arrested and jailed last month under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923, for doing a story on the poor storage of sophisticated weaponry at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) armoury at the CST was not a...
More »Water crisis more severe than energy problem: Montek
-The Hindu Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Friday that the 12th Five Year Plan, which commences in 2012, would have to contend with a “severe water crisis.” “The water crisis is even more serious than the energy problem,” Dr. Ahluwalia said at a two-day regional consultation meeting of the southern States. Urging for a political consensus on the adoption of the Public Trust Doctrine in the...
More »The tenacity of hope by Dipankar Gupta
Since Cairo took to the streets, there is one question that comes up repeatedly in India. How have we been saved from such anarchy, in spite of our faltering democracy? True, Egypt's growth, between 5% and 7%, has been less spectacular than ours. But its per capita income swelled from $587 in 1981 to $1461 in 2001. Even its deficit as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 10.2% in...
More »Trinamul, Citu in price protest race
The Trinamul Congress, an ally of the Congress-led UPA government, has decided to hit the streets from tomorrow to protest the rise in prices of petrol and other commodities. The Trinamul announcement today came minutes after CPM labour arm Citu declared a three-hour state-wide public transport strike from 12 noon to 3pm tomorrow to protest the fuel price hike. A Citu protest rally will also be held in Esplanade at 1pm...
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