The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to submit its report on the Nandigram firing in West Bengal to enable it to consider whether to permit the agency to go ahead with its plea to prosecute the erring police officials. A Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik was hearing a batch of petitions filed by the State, the CBI, the National Human Rights Commission and...

Eight cases of diversion of funds released under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA were reported last year, including three from Uttar Pradesh, the Lok Sabha was informed today. Two cases from Manipur and one each from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh were reported, Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain said in a written reply. Replying to another question about the details of irregularities committed under the scheme and action taken, Jain said...

The B S Yeddyurappa government rolled out a whole new slew of populist schemes in its 2011-12 revenue surplus Budget on Thursday, targeting an increase in the number of ‘direct beneficiaries’, especially in the agriculture sector. New schemes announced in Yeddyurappa’s Budget include a provision of Rs 10,000 each to 10 lakh small farmers in dry lands, reduction of interest rates on co-operative bank loans from three to one per...

Activists on Wednesday welcomed the government's decision to review the cases against members of the alleged Maoist-backed Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangha (CMAS) outfit and take steps for their early release from prison. The tribal outfit has forcibly occupied over 3,000 acres of non-tribal land in Koraput's Narayanpatna block between 2009 and 2010. On November 20, 2009, CMAS activists had attacked the Narayanpatna police station. Two activists were killed in subsequent...

Activist Simpreet Singh received the national RTI council award instituted by Arvind Kejriwal's Public Cause Research Foundation on behalf of the National Alliance for Peoples Movement (NAPM) which uses the RTI Act to expose fraud and misappropriation of public assets. NAPM used the RTI Act to investigate Adarsh, the tower meant for Kargil war widows, but usurped by state bureaucrats, politicians and defence personnel who had no role to play...