-The Indian Express The government has lined up the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 for consideration on Tuesday. The Bill, piloted by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, is intended "to ensure a humane, participatory, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance to owners of the land and other affected families." The legislation seeks to provide "just...

-DNA UPA Government's credibility is in question as instead of approaching court to oppose the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) order bringing them under the ambit of the RTI Act, they decided to amend the Act itself, said activist Aruna Roy on Monday and asked government to hold wide ranging discussions before going ahead with their plan. Roy, who was also the member of Congress president Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, said government's...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: When the Union cabinet yesterday decided to amend the Right to Information Act to exempt political parties from its ambit, it argued that citizens already have several legal avenues to find out about the donations the parties receive and details of their poll candidates. The cabinet approved the draft bill to be introduced in the coming Parliament session to amend the 2005 act, excluding political parties from the...

-NDTV New Delhi: The government has moved to block political parties from being covered by the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Amendments have been moved to the Act to exempt parties from being obliged to share details of their funding or how they choose their candidates. These amendments are likely to be scrutinized at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. In June, the Central Information Commission or CIC, which ensures the RTI Act is...

-The Hindu Court rulings on freebies, elections and caste-based rallies, and the CIC order on political parties are a beginning towards cleansing politics but whether they can achieve the desired result is debatable The slew of judgments from the higher judiciary in the period of just about a month or so has been like manna from heaven on the parched earth of electoral reforms. First, the Supreme Court frowned upon freebies, which...