-The Economic Times   The Central Vigilance Commissioner has reopened the debate on the mandate of the proposed Lokpal by suggesting that corporates should be brought under the purview of the proposed anti-corruption bill to check graft effectively. He also said that corruption in higher levels of bureaucracy, as also among political executives, should be dealt with by Lokpal, provided there was a proper demarcation of work to avoid overlapping of powers...

Succumbing to pressure from leaders of an aggrieved Muslim community, the Rajasthan Government on Saturday decided to hand over investigation of the Gopalgarh firing in Bharatpur to the CBI. At the same time, it also ordered a judicial probe into the incident in which eight persons were killed and 20 injured. The Government also conceded to the demand of removing district collector Krishan Kunal and SP Hinglaz Dan for failing to assess...

Comprises Lokpal Bill, laws on poll reforms, public disclosures and accountability of judges The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is planning to introduce a slew of anti-graft laws in the winter session of Parliament: apart from the Lokpal Bill, which is with a Standing Committee of Parliament, in the works are laws on electoral reforms, public procurement, service delivery to citizens, public disclosures, and accountability of judges, among others. Union Ministers and...

Lokpal provisions under consideration of the parliamentary standing committee could actually lead to significant delays in punishing erring bureaucrats, rather than speeding up the process. This would be among the key arguments from stakeholders who are expected to interact with the standing committee in the coming days. The constitution of the particular standing committee has been significantly delayed, forcing the presentations by CBI chief and central vigilance commissioner for the third...

On August 27, Parliament should have passed a resolution on the Lokpal issue in the established manner. The so-called ‘Sense of the House' resolution was a perplexing move. After the failure of discussions between members of a committee comprising Union Ministers and the civil society team, Anna Hazare declared on July 29, 2011 that if the government did not act on the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the team by August...