-PTI   With an all-party meeting scheduled on July 3 to discuss the Lokpal Bill, it would be subsequently tabled in the Parliament in the monsoon session, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayansamy said today. The "bill will certainly be tabled" before the Parliament in the monsoon session starting on August 1, Narayanasamy told reporters at the airport here, adding, Congress alone was taking efforts to bring in the...

-The Economic Times The Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance has questioned the government's move to introduce a right to food bill when it did not have a single, widely-accepted definition of the poor. The "criteria of identification of the poor remains nebulous," the Yashwant Sinha-headed committee has observed. The proposed food security bill, seen as the largest such legislation anywhere in the world, hinges on the definition of the poor. The...

-The Business Standard   Hazare's job is done, time now for people's representatives The term “civil society” has been used and abused at will these past few months in India. In a clever coup staged with the active involvement of a section of the media, a clutch of social activists and retired civil servants was allowed to project itself as “a representative of civil society”. A confused government, a directionless ruling alliance...

The Assam Government on Thursday ordered an additional Chief Secretary-level probe into Wednesday's incidents in the city, where anti-eviction protesters went on the rampage and the police opened fire, resulting in the death of three persons. The government directed the administration to gather video footage of the incidents and initiate legal action against protesters who came armed with lathis and stones and indulged in violence, causing damage to public and private...

-The Hindu   The Left parties on Thursday took on the Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev-led civil society representatives for their comments that sought to undermine parliamentary democracy. “Absolutely outrageous comments by some of the civil society leaders are being heard.... questioning the right of the MLAs and MPs to represent the vast millions of Indians. This is nothing else but showing contempt for our parliamentary democracy and also seeking to undermine...