One hopes that the hotly contested Lokpal Bill will reach its final denouement during the winter session of Parliament. In fact, the debate on corruption in Parliament and media has focused on the single demand for the establishment of an omnipotent institution of the lokpal with its powers of enforcing the citizen’s charter, establishing state-level lokayuktas and encompassing the bureaucracy from a peon to head of the department. It has...

Following a move by the Central Government to further amalgamate regional rural banks (RRBs) in the country, employee unions are demanding the formation of a National Rural Bank of India (NRBI), by amalgamating all RRBs and de-linking of RRBs from the sponsor banks. Ministry view In a letter dated November 28 to the chairmen of sponsor banks of RRBs, the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, said that currently there are...

School education laws in the state will soon undergo an overhaul. The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to synchronise all laws in school education with the centralRight to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 .  Formed recently by the state's school education department, it will be led by a retired Bombay high court judge and will have experts in education.  While the committee will look at all laws in...

-The Telegraph   Prior sanction shouldn’t be needed to prosecute any class of bureaucrats under any law, the parliamentary panel on the Lokpal bill has said in its report, which Team Anna dubbed a bid to “fool” people for ignoring its key demands. Another significant recommendation in the report, which was submitted today, is that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) look into complaints of corruption against Group C & D employees alone. On including...

-Express News Service   The report of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice on the Lokpal Bill, which was tabled in Parliament Friday, obviously saw more divergence than convergence, with 17 of the 30 members recording their dissent. In fact, the position of the dissenting three Congress members, Meenakshi Natarajan, P T Thomas and Deepa Dasmunsi, was closer to the Opposition on three important points — they suggested that the Central Vigilance...