With less than a week left, the UPA government seems to be split on the issue of appealing against the Karnataka High Court’s order stating that wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have to be fixed as per Minimum Wages Act. The Special Leave Petition challenging the High Court order has to be filed by December 23. But while PM Manmohan Singh and the Finance Ministry are...

Maharashtra says it could go against existing franchisee norms Power distribution utilities of three States including Maharashtra have objected to the proposed suggestions by a sub-group of the Task Force on Private Participation in the Power Sector of the Planning Commission. They feel the proposals could go against existing franchisee norms in the States and skew the tariff. The sub-group had been pushing for Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in the distribution of electricity as...

It began as an expose: the story of how Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s relatives allegedly received illegal mining contracts in Madhya Pradesh. Then, a tale of arm-twisting: government officials forced cable operators to pull out the news channel, Etv MP, that aired the story. Now, the story has a twist: Allegations of a failed “paid-news” deal. Officials claim that the channel carried the report—which Singh claims is baseless—after the government...

-The Times of India   Non-payment of wages in time under MGNREGA, rampant corruption at different levels, effectiveness of e-Shakti project, assistance for development from Finance Commission, non-issuance of identity cards to the PRI's elected representatives, formation of sub-committees in panchayats and use of Right to Information were some of the issues that cropped up during the five-day training programme for the office bearers of the three-tier panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) held...

The new year is off to a bad start for the state as far as the Right To Information (RTI) Act is concerned. The pendency of appeals under the landmark Act will cross the 20,000 mark on January 1, 2012, thanks to the failure of the Congress-NCP government to appoint the chief information commissioner as well as commissioners for Mumbai and Konkan region. This will be the highest pendency of appeals in...