The controversial targeted National Food Security Bill, which got the nod of the Union Cabinet on Sunday, is a pet project of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. However, the recommendation made for near-universalisation by the National Advisory Council chaired by Ms. Gandhi, was set aside by the government. To be piloted by Minister of State (Independent) for Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas, the Bill will be introduced in the...
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GoI refuses to furnish Kashmir interlocutors' report to RTI Activist
-KashmirDispatch.com The government of India has refused to furnish a copy of Kashmir interlocutors' report to a top Right To Information (RTI) campaigner in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir RTI movement convener, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat had sought a copy of interlocutor' report, but the Ministry of Home Affairs denied the request. The application for the report was filed by Dr Bhat on November 17, 2011 under the RTI Act 2005 of...
More »Not just tribal adults, even kids turn bonded labourers by Yogesh Pawar
Viju Diwa is barely 11. So it seems strange to see him carrying bricks on his head. “He is not a labourer here,” Kisan Mhatre, a brick kiln owner of Mharal village outside Mumbai’s far northern suburb of Kalyan protests and shouts at his father and worker Arjun, 30. “They push their children into labour and then the government, the media and everyone comes to trouble us,” says Mhatre. When this DNA...
More »What’s Ailing RTI? by Shonali Ghosal
THE MERE suggestion of any amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, sends civil society into a tizzy. Perhaps this level of anxiety is necessary to protect the common man’s most important tool to hold the government accountable. But what if the RTI is dying, not because of government intervention but negligence? The pendency of complaints and appeals in several states is on the rise, while the number of...
More »Need safeguards to put PM under Lokpal: Jaitley
-Express News Service Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday said his party has told Activist Anna Hazare’s camp that proper safeguards must be put in if the Prime Minister were to be brought under the ambit of the proposed Lokpal. Jaitley said the BJP has refused to accept Hazare camp’s demand to include the Prime Minister unconditionally, saying a lot of conditions and safeguards are required so that...
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