-The Hindu   Right to Information (RTI) activist R. Marijoseph has alleged that Hassan Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer threatened to kill him for seeking information about irregularities in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). Speaking to presspersons here on Saturday, Mr. Marijoseph said the Dalit Vimochana Manava Hakkugala Vedike, under his leadership, had staged a protest on Thursday, demanding inquiry into irregularities in projects under MNREGA in many gram panchayats...

While some may view the food security Bill as the instrument of combating poverty, this distinction belongs to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship anti-poverty programme of the United Progressive Alliance government. The proponents of the food security Bill at the National Advisory Council have promoted it as the instrument of fighting widespread and rising hunger, instead. But what is the empirical basis of the claims of widespread and...

This article seeks to explain the elements of the raging controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam for the information of the general reader. There are four distinct aspects to this case, and these are elucidated below. (a) Extraordinary nature of the project: This is a project involving the eastward diversion of the waters of a west-flowing river, which has been celebrated as a gigantic feat of 19th century engineering. It was a...

-The Indian Express It made a wan sight — the expanse of Mumbai’s MMRDA ground, the site for the next phase of Anna Hazare’s “second independence struggle”, looked even larger because of the small crowd pressing into the centre. Less than a tenth of the numbers expected actually showed up. What a change from a few months back, when Team Anna seemed to be the unstoppable force that collided with the...

India Against Corruption' spearheaded by Anna Hazare achieved spectacular success in harnessing public anger against corruption and converted it into perceived movement to drive home the seriousness behind their demand for Lokpal. Anna's 97-hour-long fast at Jantar Mantar in April forced the polity and political parties to admit the need for urgent legislative measures to assuage the public, who had now found a perfect icon in Anna to vent their frustration...