Normal life has been disrupted in many parts of India after the country's main opposition parties began a 12-hour strike to protest against the increase in prices of fuel. West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar states along with Mumbai were worst affected. Businesses were shut, schools and colleges closed and public transport thin in the affected states. The government has raised fuel prices - a move that will add nearly one percentage point to...

The State Government has announced that it will be appointing ombudsman to monitor the works taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister Jagadish Shettar, answering a query by S R Patil (Cong) in the Karnataka Legislative Council said that a vigilance committee as well as the ombudsman will be appointed to look into the problems. Patil, during the question hour,...

A significant proportion of the country’s official below poverty line (BPL) population cannot be termed ‘poor’. Fathom this: around a fourth of the 14 million odd BPL households in urban India own a two-wheeler, a third of them a colour TV and almost two-third a pressure cooker. Almost one in five urban BPL households has at least one well-educated, graduate or above, member. The 56 million-strong rural BPL population too exhibits...

The Lokayukta is the “government’s conscience”, an anti-corruption ombudsman organised at the state-level and born out of a need felt among the country’s statesmen to instill a sense of public confidence in the transparency of the administrative machinery. Legal experts say that the “best and the worst” of the Lokayukta organisation is that the success of the entire mechanism depends solely on the “personal qualities such as the image, caliber, drive,...

Justice N Santosh Hegde, till this week the lok ayukta of Karnataka, a former Supreme Court judge and the son of the famous late Justice K S Hegde, who resigned from the Supreme Court of India in protest against his supersession by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, contributing to events that culminated in her imposition of national Emergency, has spoken for millions of concerned citizens across the country by quitting...