Uttarakhand may be taking credit for passing a strong Lokayukta Bill. But, when it comes to Lok Pals or Ombudsman in the rural development for redressal of grievances of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), they are yet to start functioning in the hill state. In 2009, the Centre had directed all states to set up office of Ombudsman in all the districts in order to bring more transparency in...
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Why India needs democracy by Markandey Katju
What is our national aim? To my mind, our national aim must be to make India a highly prosperous country for its citizens, and for that it is necessary to have a high degree of industrialization. Even setting up and running a single primary school requires a lot of money, e.g. for buying land, erecting the school building and providing for the recurrent expenditure for salaries of teachers, staff, etc. We...
More »How the RSS co-opted Anna by Gyan Verma & Sreelatha Menon
This is a saga of how the Hindu outfit saw the promise in Anna and pursued him for its gains. How often do we meet strangers on a flight and realise that it could possibly be the beginning of a lasting friendship? This is how yoga teacher Ramdev and super cop Kiran Bedi met in mid 2010 when both of them were on the same flight and Ramdev spotted her. Although fate...
More »Aruna Roy, founder member of NCPRI and MKSS interviewed by Pamela Philipose
- Women's Feature Service These are busy days for Aruna Roy, founder member of the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), with the Jan Lok Pal and the need to check corruption emerging as big concerns in India. The woman, who traded a promising career in the bureaucracy for an activist’s existence in 1975, is presently intensely involved in the issue. Pamela...
More »Delayed entitlements should be compensated with cash: NCPRI by Gargi Parsai
-The Hindu Aruna Roy writes to PM The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has sought a new provision in the government's draft Citizen's Right to Grievances Redress Bill, 2011, to compensate a complainant for entitlements wrongly denied or delayed. The government's draft empowers the independent appellate authority to penalise for denial or delay in entitlements but does not provide for compensating a complainant. Rather than have the Grievance Redress as part...
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