With the National Integration Council discussing the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill drafted by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the consensus against the legislation has been consolidated. Till then, the charge had been led primarily by the archetypal minority bashers, the constituents of the Sangh Parivar, who refused to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth about communal and targeted violence — that it is minorities and Dalits who bear the...

Even as you read this, city transport authority officials are gearing up to renew driving licences in a day's time, discoms are now service bound to process your power connection application in not more than five weeks and you are entitled to get a birth/death certificate within seven days. With the Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time Bound Delivery of Services) Act, 2011 becoming a law on Thursday, Delhiites are now...

-The Hindu   They will weaken anti-corruption regime As campaign against corruption gathers momentum, the Central Bureau of Investigation will tell the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Law, Justice and Personnel that both the civil society's Jan Lokpal Bill and the government's Lokpal Bill appear “unworkable” and will weaken the anti-corruption regime. In a presentation scheduled for Thursday before the committee, CBI Director A.P. Singh will present the agency's views on the Bills. As for the...

Public health experts blame it on government complacency THE World Health Organization has raised alarm over leprosy spreading across India. With the disease infecting about 120,000 people every year, the country is now the biggest contributor to the global leprosy burden, the UN body said in a press release. The Union health ministry had declared the disease, which causes lesions on the skin and attacks nerves in the hands and feet, often...

The Karnataka government, which is in the thick of controversy over acquisition of land for several big-ticket investors, is in no mood to accept certain changes proposed in the new Land Acquisition and Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill tabled in Parliament last week. Instead, the government is in the process of revamping its existing land acquisition policy. The state government is not agreeable to the 80 per cent consent norm proposed in...