“How is government aggrieved if illegal commission has been closed?” The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with the Rajasthan High Court judgment transferring cases of alleged corruption during the Vasundhara Raje government, being probed by a State government-appointed Commission, to the Lokayukta. A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and H.L. Dattu dismissed a special leave petition filed by the State government challenging the High Court's order, which set aside the constitution...

That accountability is vital in a democracy was reinforced at a National Convention of the National Campaign for the People's Right to Information held in Shillong recently… If governments do not investigate corruption, people should have the right and power to do so themselves. When the idea of a people's legal right to information took initial shape in the dusty villages of Rajasthan nearly two decades ago amidst people's struggles for...

Framed with a purpose of rooting away corruption, the Rajasthan Lokayukta and Up-Lokayuktas Act, 1973 seems to be only a paper tiger. Cited as one of the weakest Act in its kind in the country, it makes the Lokayukta's office a mere investigative body that gives recommendations. "We are just an investigative body that gives recommendations. We cannot take any punitive action. "Even for our investigation, we donot have agency assigned...

Union Rural Development Ministry allegedly delaying funds for State With the Union Rural Development Ministry delaying funds, implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is likely to be derailed in the State. But for the intervention of the State government, the works taken up under the scheme would have come to a halt in Alappuzha district. With new funds yet to come and the district exhausting the Rs.71...

The Lok Pal (anti-corruption body) Bill has generated widespread interest in the past few days. The Bill is an attempt by the government, under massive pressure due to corruption charges, to gain some of its lost ground. However, civil rights activists, including Anna Hazare, Swami Agnivesh, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, have termed the draft legislation as weak and demanded that fifty per cent of the members in the committee drafting...