Prior sanction for prosecution of public servants like bureaucrats and MPs in a criminal case will not be required if the strong consensus within the parliamentary committee examining the Lokpal bill is reflected in the panel's recommendations.  At present, presiding officers of the two Houses of Parliament are required to give their assent for prosecution of MPs while the government is the relevant authority for civil servants. But the proposed Lokpal's...

-The Times of India   Activist Aruna Roy-led National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) has opposed the government's grievance redressal bill saying it was "seriously compromised" and would be ineffective in providing weaker sections of society with any relief in its present form. NCPRI's stinging critique of the bill is significant because Roy is an influential member of the National Advisory Council that functions under UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The government...

-The Hindu   Aruna Roy writes to PM The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has sought a new provision in the government's draft Citizen's Right to Grievances Redress Bill, 2011, to compensate a complainant for entitlements wrongly denied or delayed. The government's draft empowers the independent appellate authority to penalise for denial or delay in entitlements but does not provide for compensating a complainant. Rather than have the Grievance Redress as part...

82 children have died in Magadh division Bihar is in the grip of yet another lethal outbreak of viral encephalitis, which has claimed the lives of 82 children in the Magadh division so far. The latest death was reported on Sunday. The division's only government hospital, the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital, has been swamped with 383 cases of encephalitis, with an average of six cases pouring in each day. This is...

India recorded 9.8 lakh new cases of cancer last year, an increase of about 80,000 new cases as compared to 2009. Top cancer scientists from across the country along with Union health ministry officials and experts from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) met at the annual review meeting of the National Cancer Registry Programme in Guwahati to discuss the worrying trend over the last two days. This figure was...