-The Times of India   A day after Parliament accepted in principle the demands of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare, some voices of dissent over the movement have surfaced. Leading civil rights organization, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has raised apprehensions on the ability of the Lokpal bill to tackle corruption. In a public discussion in Jaipur on Sunday, PUCL activists including its former national head Rajendra Sachar and noted activist Binayak...

-The Hindu   “Its members should not be from the government” With the impasse between the civil society and the government on the structure of the Lokpal Bill continuing, the former Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan, announced his version of the Bill on Friday, which provides for establishing an anti-graft body similar to the Election Commission. “The issue of corruption is important to the nation and this is an accepted view on all sides,”...

Even as the state tries to provide a corruption-free government with the Lokseva Guarantee Bill, a similar venture by it earlier has fallen by the wayside. With no chief information commissioner (CIC) in the state for the past five months the much-trumpeted Right To Information (RTI) Act, which aims to bring in transparency, has almost become defunct. Incidentally, Rajasthan had taken the first steps in bringing this law in the...

-PTI   India should move on to make nuclear energy as safe as possible by taking lessons from the recent Fukushima accident but its imperative to replace the old-era Land Acquisition Act with a more balanced one, to address the country's present huge infrastructure and energy needs, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman M R SRInivasan said here. Stating that the resettlement was equally significant in any infrastructure project, he said India's record of...

In the unseen and unheard margins of Team Anna’s Ramlila Surge, there’s a growing sense of disquiet —especially among minority and marginalised groups. Despite carefully choreographed images of Muslim children publicly breaking their Ramzaan fast with Anna Hazare, prominent Dalit, Muslim and Christian leaders are deeply suspicious of the faces on display and the voices emanating from the crowds. They argue that Anna’s ends — fighting corruption — is undoubtedly justified, they...