-The Hindu The social activist whose new book on the RTI is just out, worries about the doublespeak in politics today, where rhetoric and substance never match The past couple of months have been hectic for Aruna Roy. The social activist and Magsaysay Award winner has been travelling across the country to promote her book, The RTI Story: Power to the People, which came out in April. After waiting more than a...
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It's lonely on the ground -Christophe Jaffrelot & Basim U Nissa
-The Indian Express RTI Act needs to be protected against attempts to dilute it. RTI activists must be made less vulnerable In April, the government of India proposed amendments to the RTI Act, one of the most empowering pieces of legislation inherited from the UPA era. The most controversial amendment pertained to Rule 12. It would allow the withdrawal of an application in case of the applicant’s death, making the job of...
More »MGNREGA clean-up leaves many jobless in Jharkhand -Sanjoy Dey
-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Jharkhand’s bureaucrats have denied thousands of farm workers their legally mandated livelihoods under the guise of plugging leakages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), say activists. Earlier this month, HT reported that the ministry of rural development had cancelled 93 lakh MGNREGA job cards — of which 2.67 lakh cards were from Jharkhand — to weed out duplicates and cards corresponding to dead beneficiaries. At the...
More »Nice To See NREGA Trending. But Urgent Fixes Needed. -Reetika Khera
-NDTV The "highest ever allocation" to NREGA (which also led to it trending on Twitter) in the Union Budget has provided a useful opportunity to raise some pressing issues related to the implementation of the scheme. It is natural, and welcome, that the government turn to NREGA to provide much-needed relief to those whose already precarious lives have been disrupted by demonetization, a man-made economic disaster. Widespread reports of job losses...
More »Sowing season hit by demonetisation: Central team red-flag loss of rural jobs -Anubhuti Vishnoi
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The 81 bureaucrats, who were dispatched by the Centre in teams of three to study the impact of demonetisation on the ground, have red-flagged loss of livelihood in rural areas, particularly in the non-formal sectors, and highlighted the negative impact on the farm sector in the sowing season. Officials told ET that these confidential reports were submitted last week and are now being examined for further action....
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