With a battle already brewing between central and state governments over the share of financial Liabilities to implement the much-debated Right to Education (RTE) Act, activists fear that such a tussle would be a deadly blow to the law itself. While Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has strictly asked all the states to mobilise funds to implement the Act, most of the state governments, including Karnataka have expressed their...

Our right to know includes the right to know what we eat. We live in a transgenic age, one in which it is no longer sufficient for food labelling to stop with listing such things as nutritional values, chemical additives, and possible allergens. Although there is no evidence that approved genetically modified food is unsafe for human consumption, people have the right to choose not to eat it for ideological,...

Public can lodge complaints against judges with a national oversight committee The bill will mandate judges to declare assets and Liabilities Oversight committee to be headed by a retired Chief Justice of India The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill providing for a mechanism to deal with complaints against judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill sets judicial standards and makes judges accountable for their...

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is the richest cabinet minister in UPA-II whereas Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee is among the poorest. The Prime Ministers' Office has provided details of assets and Liabilities of 77 ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council, submitted for the first time under the Right to Information Act. The ministers are required to submit details of their assets and Liabilities to the Prime Minister's Office every year. Getting...

A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal seeking details to make public the assets and Liabilities owned by ministers has thrown up interesting results. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), moving away from its earlier stand of not making public ministers' assets and Liabilities, on Thursday gave over 400 pages of complete details filed by Members of Parliament. According to the RTI report, Minister of State for...