-The Hindu Without a head, functioning of Central Information Commission has come to a halt When the Bharatiya Janata Party won by a massive majority in the general election last year, one of the key election promises that brought it to power was transparency and accountability in governance. A year later, many of the electoral promises made on that front remain on paper — the Lokpal Bill and the Grievance Redressal Bill,...

-Hindustan Times The NDA government is confident of winning over some naysayers by keeping its doors open to adopting a few changes they may propose to the contentious land bill that has been referred to a joint parliamentary panel, sources said. Their support will be crucial in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks the numbers and will be equally important if a joint session of Parliament is called to clear the...

-The Hindu Amidst the din over the land acquisition bill in Parliament, the farmer’s voice was missing. Everybody has an opinion on farmers these days. Be it politicians, policymakers, editors or economists. In fact, ever since the Parliament reconvened for the Budget session on April 20, the deteriorating condition of farmers has clearly dominated discussions. But even as the issue of agrarian crisis, farmer suicides (especially after Gajendra Singh’s suicide in a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday referred the land acquisition bill to a joint committee of Parliament, paving the way for its passage in a joint sitting of Parliament after the monsoon session. Rural development minister Birender Singh moved the motion for sending the bill to the joint panel after a detailed discussion forced by the opposition. The discussion had Rahul Gandhi lead the Congress attack on the bill,...

-Livemint.com Parliamentary panel blames ministry for not utilizing budget in full, demands tightening of administrative steps New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has criticized the government for cutting funds for the environment ministry and asked it to revise the allocation since the ministry is tasked with arresting environment degradation. The committee also blamed the ministry for not utilizing its budget in full, and demanded that it tighten its administrative mechanisms. A report by the...