-The Hindu   In a bid to tackle rampant corruption in procurement of items, the government on Tuesday announced that it would bring in a Bill to deal with the issue even as a Group of Ministers set up to tackle corruption aDoPTed a report which recommended means to make the procedure more transparent. The comprehensive public procurement law to clearly demarcate powers and responsibilities of various authorities and ensure full transparency to...

-The Economic Times   Prominent activist and key Anna associate Arvind Kejriwal claimed the income-tax notice asking him to pay dues of 9 lakh to the government is prompted by "political bosses" and without merit. The notice was slapped on him in August, days before Anna started the second round of his indefinite anti-graft hunger strike. The I-T notice and related developments threatened to deteriorate into yet another nasty row between Team Anna and...

While BJP MP Tarun Vijay appeared on TV on Thursday to say that RTI activist Shehla Masood and her event management firm worked closely with the party's affiliated organizations, and that her killing was being politicized, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will write a second letter to the Centre demanding a CBI probe into the murder. Vijay, who is also a BJP spokesperson, said he was...

In a season when every self-styled warrior against corruption is trying to look for a new weapon to fight it, my guest today is Satyananda Mishra, Chief Information Commissioner—someone who has in his control the strongest of those weapons, the RTI. Actually when it all began, nobody thought it would be so effective. In a period of five-and-a-half years, it has touched the hearts and minds of people. The number of...

The Central government exempts the CBI from the Right To Information Act's purview without seeking Parliament's approval. THE Right to Information Act, 2005, originally exempted 18 public authorities under the Central government from disclosure of information. Section 24 of the Act provided this exemption to intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule of the Act, and permitted the Central government to amend the Schedule, by notification in the...