-The Hindu In bridging the GST gap, the Centre ought to help States through the Consolidated Fund of India It is beyond anyone’s imagination that the Government of India would invoke the “Force Majeure” clause against its own people. Unfortunately, this has become reality at a time when every Indian State is massively burdened by the COVID-19 crisis and governance has been severely affected. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement on Thursday that the...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

-The Indian Express As protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act spiralled across Assam since December last year, the Sarbananda Sonowal-led state government promised a speedy implementation of Clause 6 as an antidote to the agitation and a measure to protect the interests of the “indigenous” people of Assam. A high-level committee on implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs has said that ‘Assamese people’...

-Down to Earth Chhattisgarh government reinstates the role of the forest department to coordinate claims that are to be filed by communities, according to the basic structure and procedures laid out in law     “There is no doubt that this order is against the law and betrays the FRA 2006 in its letter and spirit. The state government of Chhattisgarh is bound to take this illegal order back. The rollback of this...

-The Indian Express Industries can start production fearlessly in allowed areas taking adequate precautions: Javadekar The government has withdrawn the clause allowing filing of an FIR against a company and its management if an employee tests positive for COVID-19, following concerns raised by India Inc. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar maintained on Thursday that there was no government directive “for an FIR against a factory.” “There is no mention of sole responsibility fixed...