After hanging fire for several years, the Ashok Gehlot government has begun processes for framing by-laws to implement the panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act in the state. In a recent interaction, officials informed representatives of Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan and Rajasthan Adivasi Adhikar Manch that the state government after framing preliminary rules of the by-laws for the Act on March 14, a meeting was held among departments...

The Centre is likely to send a team of experts to Jharkhand to monitor the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that it believes has been taken over by a contractors’ mafia allegedly behind recent murders of an activist and labourer associated with the job scheme. In an exclusive interview to The Telegraph, Union secretary for rural development B.K. Sinha refused to give out names, but insisted that the...

Expressing concern over rampant corruption in the rank and file of the Centre's United Progressive Alliance Government, Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav today pointed out that one scam after another is coming to light and this does not augur well for the country's future. "Since the regime came to power, it was embroiled in scams such as 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society. A sincere effort should be...

For several months now, Punjab government schools have not received money for the mid-day meal scheme. Teachers have been spending from their own pockets or buying rations on credit to feed the children. The Education department has attributed the delay in payment to non-release of funds by the Finance department. In Bakhtra village in Sangrur, teachers say they are buying food because the people who send their children to school are very...

A rising number of cases of blackmail of government officers by using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, are being reported in RTI circles. Some of these cases came out in the open during the hearing of second appeals by the state information commissioner (SIC) Pune, Vijay Kuvelekar, recently. After a particularly gruelling hearing, a gram sevak from Satara broke down before the SIC and revealed that in her village...