-The Hindu   Although meant to function as watchdogs, human rights institutions in India are treated as subordinate departments with scant regard for their autonomy or statutory character A change in the occupancy of 7, Race Course Road, is spelling change in the composition of statutory bodies in India. With the Governors of various States, the office-bearers of the National Disaster Management Authority and the Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of...

-PTI   The group has also urged the govt to constitute a national-level Commission, which looks into measures to prevent farmer suicides Nagpur: Farmers in the Maharashtra's Vidarbha region have demanded a Rs 30,000 crore development package from the upcoming Union Budget. In view of the neglected farmers, it was high time that the central government looks at agrarian crisis seriously in Vidarbha and announce a hefty development package, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS)...

The NCPRI’s endeavour is to deepen democracy and achieve Constitutional principles through the use of the RTI. The NCPRI engages and interacts with the State to implement the law and to ensure that the Act is not amended or provisions weakened. The Campaign has to ensure that the law is effective and universally accessible, addressing both individual and social problems. NCPRI believes that the right to know is symbiotically linked...

-Down to Earth   Reserve Bank of India refuses to bail out three district cooperative banks Kharif sowing season is close at hand, but around 100,000 farmers of Nagpur, Wardha and Buldhana districts in Maharashtra are unlikely to get agricultural loan or hailstorm relief from the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected banking applications of these banks. Worse, fixed deposits worth Rs 1,716 crore belonging...

-Down to Earth   Faulty implementation of FRA said to be a reason for party winning just three of the 41 tribal seats in the country However, most of the tribal seats this time have been won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), YSR Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) (see list of seats below). It is strange that the...