Weighed down by an unending season of corruption, the political leadership of ruling the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has stepped in to rescue the regime’s flagship rural employment guarantee scheme from discredit due to mounting allegations of endemic irregularities. The National Advisory Council of the UPA, headed by Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday asked the Manmohan Singh government to expedite notification of the much-awaited rules that would allow public scrutiny of the...

-The Economic Times,    The BJP today demanded a thorough probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into all corruption cases in Orissa. "All scams that have taken place during the 11-year-rule of Naveen Patnaik should be investigated thoroughly by SIT," BJP's national secretary Kirit Somaya told reporters after releasing a chargesheet against the state government. SIT should be formed to probe scams relating to MGNREGA, dal scandal, mining, water, cheating of farmers,...

India has large wheat stocks already yet policy dictates they increase. In states like Punjab, Haryana, UP and Gujarat prices have fallen and are below the minimum support prices. This is a policy-induced outcome. A safe game in grains is fine, given the global politics of grain trade and the great ability of Indian politics to subsidise the wrong man in the vote bank — but how safe is safe? The...

-The Hindustan Times   Separate CBI teams from New Delhi arrived in Orissa on Tuesday and began probing into the alleged large-scale corruption in implementation of the rural job scheme under MGNREGA, official sources said on Tuesday. The officials of the premier investigating agency have already reached the districts of Rayagada, Kalahandi and Koraput, an official said adding they have met district level officials before verifying documents relating to MGNREGA. "The state government has...

Union Finance Minister and chairman of the Lokpal Bill Joint Draft Committee (JDC) Pranab Mukherjee has invited the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) to forward to him “directly” any suggestions/feedback on the Bill. He was responding to a letter written by Nikhil de of the NCPRI to him, seeking information on the procedures being followed by the panel and on public consultations. It is understood that in the...