Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...
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Using RTI difficult for us, says Indians abroad by Prathiba Raju
Living overseas for education, employment or other reasons, Indians abroad find it difficult to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act due to the cumbersome fee-payment process. 'Even after five years of the RTI Act, Indian citizens living abroad are unable to use it effectively because of a cumbersome fee payment system. The Indian government has not framed any rules or procedures for the payment of RTI fee in foreign currency...
More »CBI raids more Kalmadi aides, registers fourth FIR in CWG scam
The CBI today raided about 10 premises in the National Capital Region after it registered a fresh FIR in connection with its probe into the alleged multi-crore Commonwealth Games overlays scam. The raids come a day after the agency questioned Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi. Official sources said the CBI registered the FIR, the fourth in the case, yesterday in connection with the overlays contracts given out to four firms....
More »African farmers displaced as investors move in by Neil MacFarquhar
Stunned villagers are finding that governments have been leasing land, often for decades. The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave. “They told us this would be the last rainy season for us to cultivate our...
More »Wholesale price dips, onion ban questioned
The Centre today sought to justify the export ban on onion by saying that the wholesale price of onion in Nashik, the country’s largest wholesale hub for the bulb crop, had declined by 33 per cent to Rs 2,500 per 100kg or Rs 25 a kg. The impact will not be felt immediately on kitchen budgets as it will take some time – “two to three weeks”, according to Sharad Pawar...
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