-TheWire.in Two supplementary MNREGA allocations were made by the government last year. This means, there’s only a 1%, not 25%, actual increase in this year’s Budget. New Delhi: The finance minister claimed that this year’s Budget allocations for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) were a new “record”, at Rs 48,000 crore. But is this really a substantial increase? And, more importantly, is it enough? The 2016-17 Budget had...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Budget 2017: Lowering Cash Limit for Political Donations Farcical, Say RTI Activists -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
-TheWire.in Many feel the move is pointless as lowering the disclosure limit requires an amendment to the Representation of Peoples Act, which remains unchanged. Several RTI activists have dismissed finance minister Arun Jaitley’s announcement that cash donations to political parties will now be capped at Rs 2000, down from the earlier limit of Rs 20,000. They have questioned the intent behind the decision – it is meant to increase transparency and accountability...
More »Union Budget 2017-18: Urgent Need for an Improved Farm Debt Waiver Scheme -Ishan Anand
-TheWire.in Despite all the talk of a big push to the agricultural sector, the last Union Budget turned out to be a missed opportunity to provide genuine relief to farmers. The government must rectify this. The finance minister will be presenting the Union Budget 2017-18 at a time when the agrarian economy is in deep crisis. The farmers of the country have been suffering from a longstanding neglect of the sector, which...
More »Academic Bela Bhatia Attacked, Threatened in Bastar -Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
-TheWire.in The attack comes days after the researcher accompanied an NHRC team to record the statements of rape and sexual assault survivors who have filed FIRs against police personnel. Days after the Bastar-based academic and researcher Bela Bhatia accompanied a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team to record the statements of rape and sexual assault survivors who have filed FIRs against police personnel, she was attacked by a group of individuals at...
More »Stakeholders Need to Work Together to Improve RTI Implementation, Says Study -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
-TheWire.in A report from several civil society actors has found that the Right to Information Act is not functioning as it should be. New Delhi: Two organisations working in the field of right to information assessment and advocacy and a publishing house have come together to bring out ‘Tilting the Balance of Power: Adjudicating the RTI Act for the Oppressed and the Marginalised’, which is a detailed analysis of the orders of...
More »