-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Political parties will be out of the purview of the RTI Act with a proposed amendment that is likely to be taken up by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The move comes even as several prominent civil activists have petitioned PM Manmohan Singh urging him not to go ahead with the amendments without consultation. According to sources, the government plans to amend the definition of public...
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Modi draws flak for bid to force out Sikh farmers -Zia Haq
-The Hindustan Times The Narendra Modi government has ‘prima facie' discriminated against the 500-member Sikh community in Kutch, a report by the National Commission for Minorities says. The government had ordered the Sikhs to sell their land and return to Punjab because they were not Gujaratis, citing the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948. The commission strongly disapproved of the interpretation that only Gujarati farmers could own or buy land in the...
More »Government moves to keep political parties off RTI radar -Deepshikha Ghosh
-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...
More »Forests of the night -Christophe Jaffrelot
-The Indian Express How Chhattisgarh became a sanctuary, and then a laboratory, for Naxals Some time ago, Chhattisgarh hit the headlines because of a Maoist attack on state Congress leaders, in which V.C. Shukla and Mahendra Karma died. Since then, the Congress has accused the BJP government of a conspiracy, and some BJP leaders have accused former chief minister Ajit Jogi of being part of a conspiracy himself. Politicising this tragic episode...
More »UP IAS officer who took on sand mafia suspended -Dipankar Ghose
-The Indian Express Noida (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday suspended an IAS officer who had taken on the sand mafia by clamping down on illegal mining in the Yamuna and Hindon riverbeds over the last few months. Durga Shakti Nagpal, a 2009-batch IAS officer posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) in Gautam Buddh Nagar, had impounded several trucks engaged in illegal quarrying and registered over 20 FIRs. The reason cited...
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