-Livemint.com The positions of two non-official members representing farming community and one official member have been vacant for 2 years New Delhi: Following years of low crop prices and protests by farmers, the centre in its budget for 2018-19 promised to ensure remunerative prices for farmers through higher minimum support prices (MSPs). However, in the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, or CACP— an office of the agriculture ministry mandated to recommend...

-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) New Delhi: Calling this year’s union budget ‘just an exercise in manipulation of numbers,’ veteran activist Medha Patkar asked, “When the major decisions like the demonetisation and GST are taken between two budgets then what’s the relevance of the Budget?,” at a panel discussion on the analysis of this year’s union budget with a special focus on Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest,...

-TheWire.in The number of vacancies in the Central Information Commission is set to reach the all-time high of four. New Delhi: The number of vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) is set to rise to the highest ever – four – on January 15, with information commissioner Manjula Prasher retiring that day. Chief information commissioner R.K. Mathur has directed the Prime Minister’s Office to reveal information on the reasons behind the...

-Scroll.in It takes an average of eight years to investigate complaints of corruption against central government officials. When the Bharatiya Janata Party ascended to power at the Centre in 2014, it was helped enormously by a wave of anti-corruption sentiment that has swept India. In the run-up to the election, prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi promised to prosecute all corrupt officials and politicians – including those from his own party. During...

-The Hindu Communication to be sent to applicants for query details before their appeal is accepted Hyderabad (Telangana): In an initiative that is likely to cheer up the Right to Information (RTI) applicants and activists, the Telangana State Information Commission is evolving plans to send communication to individuals, asking them to complete the deficiencies in their applications being forwarded to the commission. This will be applicable to all RTI queries submitted at the...