-The Times of India   The state chapter of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind that is planning a huge rally on January 5 at Nizam College grounds demanded on Tuesday that madrassas (religious schools) in the country be kept out of the purview of the Right to Education Act. Jamiat's state unit president Hafiz Peer Shabbir, who is also a member of the Legislative Council, told mediapersons that the government had not yet evolved a...

-The Hindu   Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on Monday alleged that officers in the Lokayukta were being gradually transferred and old cases “whitewashed” taking advantage of the vacuum in the premier investigation agency in the State. Speaking to presspersons at Raj Bhavan after conferring doctorate degrees on two eminent scientists, the Governor maintained that the standoff between him and Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on the appointment of Lokayukta had not created any constitutional...

-The Hindu   Move to give more teeth in combating corruption In a move envisaged to give more teeth in combating corruption, the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday passed the Bihar Lokayukta Bill, 2011 by voice vote. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mr. Vijendra Prasad Yadav tabled the Bill which was subsequently taken up for voting by the Speaker Mr. Uday Narayan Chaudhary, following deliberations by legislators from the ruling and Opposition parties. “We have drawn up...

-PTI The Bihar Lokayukta Bill, 2011, has proposed constitution of a three-member Lokayukta with jurisdiction to probe corruption charges against public servants from the chief minister down to employees of the lowest rung of the administration. Public servants including the chief minister, ministers, members of the state legislature, officials, employees, companies, NGOs and chairpersons of the various boards and corporations in the state would be within the purview of the Lokayukta,...

Markandey Katju's forthright comments on the state of the Indian news media and the intellectual competence of many journalists have certainly raised many hackles. One does not have to agree with everything the chairman of the Press Council of India diagnoses or prescribes to see that his observations have hit home. Nor are his concerns confined to how and in what respects journalism and many journalists go astray and let...