-Scroll.in It takes an average of eight years to investigate complaints of corruption against central government officials. When the Bharatiya Janata Party ascended to power at the Centre in 2014, it was helped enormously by a wave of anti-corruption sentiment that has swept India. In the run-up to the election, prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi promised to prosecute all corrupt officials and politicians – including those from his own party. During...

-Scroll.in The court refused to order a CBI inquiry into connivance of officials in the Rs 60,000 crore scam, but directed the setting up of an expert committee. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said mining companies that had been operating without necessary clearances in Odisha would be subject to a 100% penalty on the price of the ore that had been illegally extracted. The court also said that the government’s policy...

-Hindustan Times The amendments to the law will ensure that ministers, Members of Parliament and bureaucrats, don’t overstay in government bungalows. New Delhi: The Centre’s push to rid its limited living spaces of squatters got a fillip on Wednesday with the Union cabinet clearing amendments to the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971. The amendments to the law will ensure that ministers, Members of Parliament and bureaucrats, don’t overstay in government...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-Frontline.in Magsaysay Award winning activist and national president of the Safai Karmachari Andolan Bezwada Wilson is a co-petitioner with Major General (Retd) S.G. Vombatkere in a Supreme Court case relating to the Aadhaar project. He raises an important concern about the impact of Aadhaar on people born into oppressed castes, particularly safai karmacharis, or manual scavengers. Excerpts from an interview he gave Frontline: * What is your opinion on Aadhaar? There is no...