-CivilSocietyOnline.com New Delhi: The 100-day Accountability Yatra across Rajasthan led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has had an impact. The state government has issued orders to re-verify all one million pensions that had been stopped, including the 688,875 pensions that had been cancelled. From December 2015 to March this year the yatra had travelled to 33 districts in Rajasthan to assess how government schemes were functioning, find out people’s grievances...

It was a Rashomon moment for the readers of the First Common Review Mission report when they heard activists complaining about the pension system of Rajasthan during a recent press conference held in the capital. The First Common Review Mission (CRM) report, which was prepared during the month of May this year by a team of 32 experts had observed that pension related payments under the National Social Assistance Programmes (NSAP)...

-The Hindu Rights groups demand reopening of about 7.5 lakh pension accounts closed in Rajasthan Jaipur: After the Rajasthan government’s acceptance of wrong classification of living persons as “dead” and restoration of their social security pensions, civil rights groups here have demanded reopening of about 7.5 lakh pension accounts closed earlier and re-verification of about 10 lakh pensioners in the State. The physical verification by activists of the Right to Information Campaign and...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com For the past decade state governments have launched a series of Internet-based initiatives to deliver services more efficiently. Technology has been seen as the best way of bypassing red tape and corruption in the system to reach the poor directly with benefits. Beneficiaries are identified through biometrics and a series of tech solutions like smart cards, micro ATMs and so on. The result of these efforts is that India is...

-The Hindu Jaipur: Ironic though it may sound, a unique memorial celebrating the Right to Information has come up in the Beawar town of Rajasthan — where the RTI movement had started 20 years ago — at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State has opted to delete chapters on the evolution of RTI campaign and law from its school textbooks. Hundreds of people from all walks of...