The Union government on Monday asked the States to prepare a below poverty line (BPL) list by March, census for which is now on, so that the needy are readied to enjoy the benefits to be rolled out under the 12th Five Year Plan. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh hoped the States would prepare the list at the earliest. The Centre would, by December-end, complete its exercise of generating...

Central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has put forth a compelling argument for placing public-private partnerships (PPPs) under the ambit of the Right to information (RTI) Act in an order passed earlier this week. Though the order pertains to a specific case in Delhi, it will have far reaching implications for the rest of the country. The Central Information Commission (CIC) recognizes PPPs as public bodies that must provide information under the...

-The Times of India   The Central Information Commission (CIC) has rejected objections raised by the Supreme Court directing it to disclose details of medical reimbursement of judges in the last three years and the rules relating to appointment of retired judges as arbitrators. Clubbing together three RTI applications of activist S C Agrawal, the commission also directed the apex court to disclose the list of all resolutions passed by meetings...

The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

The Lokpal Bill is in danger of skidding off the rails. As it is introduced in Parliament, eminent activist Aruna Roy tells Shoma Chaudhury why we should not rush into it. THE LOKPAL BILL is now being debated in Parliament, almost 40 years after the idea was first mooted. Unfortunately, parented on one side by decades of wilful government inertia and, on the other, by the panicked hustle of ‘Team...