-Zee News Information provided by a person while applying for passport can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant Corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the Citizen's Right to Information is given greater primacy with regard to privacy," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi...

-The Hindu Environment Ministry rejected forest clearance to Kalu dam in Thane district While irregularities were surfacing in irrigation projects around Mumbai in early April, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) rejected forest clearance to the Kalu dam in Murbad taluka of Thane district, which would have submerged around 1,000 hectares of forest land. Work started last October without permission from the MOEF, and Indavi Tulpule...

Alarmed by its proactive role, the three ‘pillars’ of our democracy set out to weaken the fourth estate Fundamentalisms do not necessarily announce their arrival by banging a hammer on our heads. Freedoms are often lost in little steps. The process creeps in quietly but insidiously. The path is often complex and defies a simple narrative. But here’s a straightforward fact: a concerted attempt is being made to censor, control...

-The Asian Age The Centre on Friday said it is examining a proposal to provide foodgrains as part of wage payments to agriculture workers under NREGA. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar also said that another proposal to provide a certain number of NREGA workers for agricultural operation has “not received” any positive response. He was responding to a demand from Congress leader J.D. Seelam in the Rajya Sabha that the government should...

-PTI Unhappy over Odisha's performance in implementing MGNREGA, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked the state government to sincerely utilise about Rs 5,000 crore central fund proposed for various rural schemes this year instead of complaining against the Centre. "It is a matter of regret that Odisha put up a poor show in implementing MGNREGA. Its performance is at the bottom after Bihar and Jharkhand though programmes like MGNREGA is...