Fourteen-year-old Shafat Ahmad works as a domestic helper in the house of a Srinagar-based government employee in Kashmir. His younger sister embroiders shawls in an unregistered textile venture in her native village of Beeru. "When my father first brought me here, my employer promised to send me to school," Shafat told IPS. Though he is keen to pursue his education, he has yet to attend a single class. The Ahmed siblings' story...
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PM Manmohan Singh calls for review of RTI Act
-The Economic Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a review of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, one of the UPA's trophy legislations, potentially exposing the government to a fresh stand-off with civil society. Addressing a two-day annual convention of the Central Information Commission here, Singh said the transparency law should not adversely affect deliberative processes in the government and discourage honest, well-meaning public servants from voicing their views. He...
More »Manmohan's RTI speech revives old chestnuts by Vidya Subrahmaniam
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra demanded on Friday that the Central Information Commission be upgraded to the status of a Constitutional authority along the lines of the Election Commission of India and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. RTI circles interpreted Mr. Mishra's intervention, coming after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's call for a critical look at the Right to Information Act, as an effort to safeguard the Act and the...
More »Anti-nuclear protests in Tamil Nadu gather strength by Vidya Padmanabhan
L. Devasagayam moved into the tsunami resettlement quarters in the village of Idinthakarai on the coast in the far south of Tamil Nadu after his neighbourhood further south was destroyed in the 2004 calamity. But now, he worries that the colourful home that he gratefully accepted after that disaster could be his undoing. The reason for the fear confronts him when he steps out of his house. Clearly visible at a...
More »The Inconvenient Truth Of Soni Sori by Shoma Chaudhury
Why were two tribals and the Essar group framed by the Chhattisgarh police? Why are Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi being systematically silenced? This chilling story of one family reveals more about India's Naxal crisis than any official document can. AS I sit to write this, at 12.20 pm on 4 October 2011, an SMS pops up on my phone: “Soni Sori has been arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch.” The...
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