The rural development ministry has proposed several changes in the rural job guarantee programme to ensure timely payment of wages and eradicate graft at a time when the Congress party-led ruling alliance has come under fire for poor governance and its failure to tackle Corruption. The ministry has listed nine challenges to the proper functioning of the programme and proposed possible modifications in a note. The challenges include ensuring demand-driven legal...

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are among the Indian states that have failed to name an ombudsman to handle grievances and prevent graft related to the central government’s flagship rural jobs programme, even two years after they were directed to do so. Only 15 of the nation’s 28 states have appointed the ombudsmen, according to the ministry of rural development. Assam, Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu also haven’t appointed the watchdog. Setting up...

From 50 in 2005, the number of applications is expected to touch 15,000 this year The Karnataka Information Commission has received, in recent weeks, a flood of applications for information under the Right to Information Act at public information offices (PIOs) across the State. Factors It would appear that the heightening of the anti-Corruption mood in the country following the Anna Hazare movement, the report of the State Lokayukta against illegal mining that...

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that he would write to the CBI again to take up the Shehla Masood murder case. The government had recommended an inquiry by the CBI two days after the murder, but the agency had not yet responded. Talking to mediapersons at his residence Wednesday, Chouhan also announced a reward of Rs one lakh to anybody giving clues leading to arrest of Shehla's murderer. An RTI...

Gandhi’s struggle was to get Indians to choose their destiny, not letting a moralist to decide on their behalf During the 12 days of melodrama when India apparently solved the problem of Corruption, one claim Kisan Baburao Hazare​’s followers consistently made was that his fast was a non-violent, Gandhian protest. If Mohandas Gandhi could go on a fast-unto-death to force a government to relent, so could Hazare. Hazare’s media-savvy handlers ensured that...