The roller-coaster ride of the government-civil society joint drafting committee on the Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill has ended in a draw, but left both sides badly injured. Whether the tie will be broken when they present their separate recommendations to a proposed all-party committee in July remains an open question. Yet, this is a good time to draw up a balance-sheet of the government's first-ever effort to take on board civil...
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Puri cops deny SC/ST chief Puniya entered temple
-The Times of India The Puri district police on Saturday denied that chairman of the National SC/ST Commission P L Puniya had entered a Kali temple at Ranapada village near Brahmagiri. A section of the media had reported that Puniya had entered the temple, breaking an age-old ban on the entry of Dalits into temples in Puri. IIC (Brahmagiri police station) Debi Prasad Dash said Puniya, along with senior officials of...
More »Scared of the spark by Rajinder Sachar
As expected, the government and the team led by Anna Hazare have disagreed on vital points. The question of including the prime minister within the ambit of the lokpal is being falsely blown out of proportion by government apologists. Though the head of the government, the prime minister is only the first among equals. In a democracy, a political vacuum does not arise if the PM finds himself under...
More »World Bank team to draft higher education blueprint by Amit Gupta
For the first time in Jharkhand, World Bank officials from Washington DC will hold daylong deliberations with a select group of academics, bureaucrats and stakeholders here to thrash out a roadmap for improving the standard of higher education in the state. “The quality of higher education is not up to the mark at most educational institutions. There are many challenges and opportunities in the sector in a country where there is...
More »NAC sticks to its stand, finalises draft food security bill by Nitin Sethi
The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council stood its ground on Wednesday and gave the go-ahead to an expansive Food Security Bill. Not relenting to the position the Prime Minister's Office and the Planning Commission had taken against a bill that could lead to a surge in subsidy, the NAC finalized the draft along the lines of the framework it had made public earlier. The government was expected to table its...
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