Union minister for rural development CP Joshi on Monday turned the table on the Nitish Kumar led-NDA government, saying that the state government had failed to bring into play good governance in the implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes, which resulted in the poor performance of the present dispensation. Joshi, who on Sunday had first hand experience of the implementation of village road construction under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act...

Leader of Opposition J Jayalalithaa on Monday charged that the appointment of the next Chief Information Commissioner of the State in a non-transparent manner without consulting her had defeated the very objective of the Right to Information Act. She also reiterated her view that the appointment of new CIC was illegal. In a statement here, Jayalalithaa said the purpose of making the Leader of the Opposition one of the members of...

“The hungry must not be left out” The steering group of the Right to Food Campaign on Saturday expressed its apprehension about doing away with the distribution of subsidised foodgrains to Above Poverty line (APL) beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS), as suggested by the Supreme Court. While welcoming the court's order on rotting foodgrains, the campaign, that is pressing for universal PDS, has said that leaving out APL would mean...

The swearing in of Tamil Nadu’s new chief information commissioner, K.S. Sripathy, was marked by the arrest of three Right to Information activists who were protesting against his appointment outside the Raj Bhavan. M. Gopalakrishnan, Siva Elango and Madhav Vishnubhatta were arrested from the entrance to the Raj Bhavan, where Sripathy was taking oath, holding up placards that read: “Save RTI”, “No transparency in Appointments”, “Non-transparent appointment to uphold transparency?” They were...

Civil society representatives from more than 70 countries wrapped up a United Nations forum today with an urgent call to action to improve the health of millions of men, women and children worldwide and step up efforts to achieve the globally agreed anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In a wide-ranging declaration adopted at the end of the three-day meeting in Melbourne, Australia, participants stressed that achieving...