-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With Parliament failing to provide a safety net, political parties now have to comply with the Central Information Commission (CIC) order bringing them under the Right To Information law as not doing so exposes them to the risk of legal action, including summons to party presidents. The commission on July 28 received a complaint of "non-compliance" from activist S C Agrawal who, along with Association...

-The Indian Express &nBSP; Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013. The proposed law, which will replace the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 that suffers from various shortcomings, including silence on the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced, stipulates mandatory consent of at least 70 per cent of landowners for acquiring land for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide heavily-subsidized food to two-thirds of India's 1.23 billion people, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Much like what happened in the Lok Sabha last week, there was a scramble among political parties to garner populist brownie points even as they differed fiercely on certain provisions of the bill and their implementation. With the Congress all...

-PTI New Delhi: A bill seeking to amend the Right To Information (RTI) Act to shield political parties from providing information under the transparency law is scheduled to come up for discussion in Lok Sabha on Monday. The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2013 was introduced on August 12 in the Lower House by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy but could not be discussed amid repeated...

-The Hindu The long-pending Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday night after Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh assured the House that the measure allowed enough room for State governments to implement it as per their requirements. The Bill is only setting a bottom line for fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement in the case of land acquisition and State governments were free to further...