In Uttar Pradesh's most impoverished region, Bundelkhand, government officials feed off not just the living but also the dead. Headlines Today has exposed how corrupt officials exploit the grieving families of farmers, who have committed suicide.   In a visit to Bundelkhand in 2008, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi repeated a phrase borrowed from his father Rajiv Gandhi: "Out of 100 paise, only 15 paise reaches the poor".   While travelling through this dustbowl...

NCPRI proposes bringing PM under Lokpal, suggests basket of anti-corruption measures The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has proposed bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal with the safeguard that the executive head can only be investigated on the recommendation of the full benches of the Lokpal and the Supreme Court. At a consultative meeting held here on Friday, the NCPRI, which has two National Advisory Council members, Aruna...

The Joint Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee concludes its meetings without any agreement on major issues. ON June 21, as the five government representatives and the five civil society members of the Joint Lokpal Bill Drafting Committee ended their deliberations after exchanging their versions of the draft Lokpal Bill, the battle lines were clearly drawn. The government was in no mood to agree with the civil society members led by Anna...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Telegraph   Multiple landslides across West Sikkim last night triggered by torrential rain have killed 16 persons and cut off the inter-district road connectivity and power and water supply for more than 20 hours. The highest death toll was reported from Khurong Kewa Dara along the Pelling-Dentam road, 15km from Geyzing, the district headquarters of West Sikkim. A three-month-old baby was among the 14 people who were buried alive at Khurong...