Petitioners contemplating PILs against ongoing projects on environment grounds might want to do a rethink. The government's new litigation policy calls for petitioners to be slapped with costs for stoppage of projects that are in public interest. This approach is a prominent part of the National Litigation Policy (NLP) announced recently by law minister Veerappa Moily and is a response to PILs that lack merit. Though a majority of PILs...
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MGNREGS: ‘GPs can sanction funds only upto Rs 1 lakh’
The power of the Gram Panchayats of sanctioning works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been curtailed down to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 10 lakh, said Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer P Shivashankar. Addressing the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meeting on Wednesday at ZP hall, he said that the step has been taken up by the Government following several complaints of misuse of funds under...
More »MG-NREGA implementation in Kokrajhar satisfactory: Jain
Eminent citizen AK Jain, who has been deputed to strengthen the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MG-NREGA) in Kokrajhar district expressed satisfaction over the progress of the scheme in Kokrajhar district and rated it as one of the best in Assam. Jain, who has been extensively visiting the sites of implementation of MG-NREGA since June 24 last expressed his satisfaction over the implementation of the...
More »A watchdog without teeth by Krishnadas Rajagopal
The Lokayukta is the “government’s conscience”, an anti-corruption ombudsman organised at the state-level and born out of a need felt among the country’s statesmen to instill a sense of public confidence in the transparency of the administrative machinery. Legal experts say that the “best and the worst” of the Lokayukta organisation is that the success of the entire mechanism depends solely on the “personal qualities such as the image, caliber, drive,...
More »Indians, Envious of U.S. Spill Response, Seethe Over Bhopal by Lydia Polgreen
The contrast between the disasters, more than a quarter-century and half a world apart, could not be starker. In 1984, a leak of toxic gas at an American company’s Indian subsidiary killed thousands, injured tens of thousands more and left a major city with a toxic waste dump at its heart. The company walked away after paying a $470 million settlement. The company’s American chief executive, arrested while in India, skipped...
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