Almost a week after RTI activist Amit Jethava was shot dead near the Gujarat High Court, the minister-in-charge of RTI Act on Thursday denied any move to frame a law to protect RTI activists while the Central Information Commissioner said it was the “job of the police” to protect them. “There is no proposal before the government to frame a specific law to protect RTI activists,” Minister of State for Public...
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Govt. to introduce Bill to protect whistleblowers
The government on Thursday said a Bill to protect whistleblowers is in the final stage of formulation. “A Bill to protect the persons who make public interest disclosures is nearing finalisation,” Minister of State for Public Grievances Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. “There have been reports in the media and government has been informed about the increased threat to RTI (Right to Information) activists. Such incidents...
More »No agreement on price regulation and penalty clause in the Seeds Bill by Gargi Parsai
The government failed to reach an agreement with the Members of Parliament, who moved for amendments to the Seeds Bill on the issue of price regulation and penalty for failure of seeds in a meeting convened by the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar here on Wednesday. On other amendments, the members either convinced the government or got convinced. The government will now consult the Ministry of Law on the two issues, Mr...
More »Ministry Says Poverty Down by Amit Agnihotri
While the government is spending thousands of crores of rupees in various welfare programmes, food subsidy and is even planning a food security law for the poor, the rural development ministry said poverty has come down in magnitude. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for rural development Pradeep Jain said that irrespective of the method used (old or new), the percentage of the population below poverty...
More »‘Paid news' interferes with concept of free, fair and objective press: Pratibha Patil by Jiby Kattakayam
Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year goes to Siddharth Varadarajan of The Hindu “Today issues are trivialised and trivial issues become headlines” “Audiences, readers still welcome well-researched stories” President Pratibha Patil on Thursday said the recent phenomenon of ‘paid news' could distort news and this interfered with the concept of a free, fair and objective press. Speaking after presenting the 4 {+t} {+h} Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards at the Taj...
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