Ration at your doorstep project has proved a hit in Pune district, with nearly 44 villages benefiting from this system. State Food and Civil Supply Minister Anil Deshmukh had launched the scheme under a novel initiative of revamping Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state. The government had earlier received flak for the poor flow of PDS. The minister had announced the method to curb black marketing and plug loopholes...

RTI activists from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad  have urged state governor K Sankaranarayanan to issue directions to the state information commission to update information on its official website. In a letter to the governor, the activists have pointed out that it is mandatory for all government and semi-government offices to voluntarily provide information of the office under section 4 of the RTI Act. "However, information about the commission's address, telephone numbers and...

Noted social activist Anna Hazare has decided to launch a 'jail bharo' agitation against the 'illegal decision of the state government to condone irregularities' in the Lavasa lake city project coming up near Pune. "The state government's decision to regularise irregularities in Lavasa project is akin to daylight robbery of tribals whose lands have been illegally acquired for the project," Hazare said. "As per law, land of tribals cannot be transferred. But...

The youth will not take no for an answer. Five years on, the RTI comes of age. At four feet something, Santosh’s energy belies her petite frame. The school dropout was introduced to RTI through activist Arvind Kejriwal, and now, at Parivartan’s Sundar Nagri office, she holds fort, helping others acquire everything from BPL and ration cards to school admissions through RTI. Threats and attacks by local authorities who dubbed her...

ASSAM is on the brink of a movement, like the one that ended with the 1984 Assam Accord. This time the concern is not illegal immigrants but dams proposed upstream in Arunachal Pradesh. In the past year and a half people in Assam have held a number of protests. The latest one was on September 10 when Union Minister of Environm ent and Forests Jairam Ramesh visited Guwahati to consult academics,...