-The Times of India   Despite stringent directives from the central and state government to make it easy for applicants to obtain information under Right to Information Act (RTI) Act, officials in many Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) office continue to take applications lightly. Dilly-dally tactics and indifferent treatment to applicants is described as natural in NMC. The two most common problems being created by officials are refusal to accept applications by directing...

A late-night crackdown by the police and paramilitary forces on anti-mega dam protesters in Lakhimpur district triggered raging protests at several places in Assam on Monday. The police arrested more than 200 protesters, who since December 16 had been blocking vehicles transporting equipment and construction materials, through National Highway 52, for the NHPC's 2,000-MW Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh. To protest the police action, five organisations, including the...

In Jharkhand, an assertive populace is making sure that the dealers do not hijack the PDS. UNTIL a few years ago, the public distribution system (PDS) in Jharkhand appeared broken and beyond repair. The National Sample Survey data for 2004-05 suggest that more than 80 per cent of the PDS grain was sold in the open market at that time. A field survey in Ranchi and Dumka districts from June...

India Against Corruption' spearheaded by Anna Hazare achieved spectacular success in harnessing public anger against corruption and converted it into perceived movement to drive home the seriousness behind their demand for Lokpal. Anna's 97-hour-long fast at Jantar Mantar in April forced the polity and political parties to admit the need for urgent legislative measures to assuage the public, who had now found a perfect icon in Anna to vent their frustration...

In Bihar, the coupon system to distribute PDS grain fails to prevent corruption. AT the Jamaluddin gram panchayat in Patna district on January 26, 2007, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched an ambitious reform of the public distribution system (PDS) in Bihar: a coupon system. He claimed that it would “empower the poor and stop black-marketeering” and that it was “not a simple coupon but a powerful weapon in the hands...