The draft bill seeks to create an institution that will be independent of those it seeks to police, and will have powers to investigate and prosecute all public servants, and others found guilty of corrupting them. A number of commentators have raised issues about the provisions in the draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill. They have asked whether it would be an effective instrument to check corruption. They have pointed to...

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has directed the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to blacklist all non-performing contractors, holding them responsible for the twin malaise of delays and prevalence of corruption in execution of road projects. The committee on transport, tourism and culture headed by Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), did not rule out the possibility of a nexus among middlemen, bad contractors and corrupt officials for the delay in projects and...

The Sanjha Manch, a joint forum of people’s organisations, organised a candlelight march in protest against the proposed Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project here last evening. Members of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, which is agitating against the acquisition of 1,313 acres of agriculture land for the proposed nuclear plant and activists of the Sanjha Manch began their candlelight march from Laal Batti Chowk and after passing through DSP Road, the procession reached...

The allocations earmarked for women as a proportion of the total Union budget outlay has gone up from 3% in 2007-08 (revised estimate) to 6.1% in 2010-11 (budget estimate) It will be seven years since the government, acknowledging a gender imbalance, introduced gender budgeting in 2005-06. Ever since then, the annual budget has been accompanied by a gender budgeting statement. An analysis of the last four Union budgets reveals two things....

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants it to be the new Singapore. State officials call it Urjanchal, land of energy. For sociologist Sakarama Somayaji, the enduring image from India’s emerging energy wonderland in Singrauli is the women who sell baskets of stones on the roadside. Individually or in groups, the women break stones, and sell them to passing trucks for R80-R90 a basket, a day’s labour. The women are...