-The Hindu The participants also called for deletion of Sections 9 to 16 of the Bill dealing with the forming of a "Complaints Scrutiny Panel" besides the Oversight Committee With the Lokpal Bill stuck in limbo, a civil society-led national consultation on judicial accountability was held here on Tuesday in which several shortcomings in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2012, as passed by the Lok Sabha were discussed. The consultation was organised...

-The Hindustan Times Condemning the attack on RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI) on Monday asked the Assam government to immediately disclose the Central government’s report on tackling floods in the state. Gagoi, who is also general secretary of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), was assaulted while he was surveying the flood situation in Punni village, Dharmapur area of Assam and is currently in...

His crime: he complained of corruption in rural job guarantee scheme Dhuraram Kuldiya, former Sarpanch of Somalsar Panchayat in Nohkha teshil of Bikaner district, did not sign an SOS he sent to Rajasthan Chief Secretary on Monday in the form of a letter. Instead, his son Bhanwarlal inked it. Not that Dhuraram is illiterate. Admitted to a private hospital here in the State capital now, he cannot use his hands for both...

THE CHHATTISGARH Assembly will now consider an applicant’s intent before giving information under RTI. It might even refuse the application if it is convinced it has been made with mala fide intent. This clearly goes against the RTI Act, which says that an applicant requesting information shall not be required to give any reason. But can intent be ascertained without asking the reason? The Assembly enforced this rule last month by...

-The Hindu   Convention suggests steps to combat malnutrition   The second “national convention on children's right to food” concluded here on Sunday with a call to link anti-malnutrition strategies to inflationary indices. The three-day convention in which about 1,000 delegates from 21 States participated, adopted a 25-point “charter” on combating malnutrition. Shanta Sinha, chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), stressed on focussing on the disadvantaged sections in the...