-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The panchayati raj ministry, created by the UPA government to drive Rajiv Gandhi's idea of empowering gram sabhas, is struggling to remain relevant under the Narendra Modi regime. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget presentation, slashed the panchayati raj ministry's plan outlay to a meagre Rs 94 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal, and transferred its flagship schemes - the Backward Regions Grants...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday quashed the lookout circular issued against Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai. The high court also directed the authorities to expunge endorsements made while offloading Pillai from a flight to London by immigration officials on January 11. The court had reserved the order in the case on February 19. Pillai had objected to the government's move of offloading her when she was on her...

-The Indian Express The debate over the land acquisition bill is increasingly marked by political tone deafness and legislative hubris. The government has offered minor amendments. But most of them are designed to display its consistent ability to be too clever by half rather than its ability to address deep issues. The 2013 bill had been framed in the context of several issues. The now much-maligned Land Acquisition Act of 1894...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Attorney General is not merely a lawyer for the government, but is a constitutional authority, the Delhi High Court has said, bringing the top law officer under the ambit of the RTI Act. Justice Vibhu Bakhru on Tuesday held the office of AG to be a "public authority" as per the transparency act and reversed the decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC). In 2012...

-Business Standard Amendments skip key controversial issues The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has made nine amendments to its land Bill, tabled in Parliament on Monday. Most of these were cosmetic in nature, leaving the key elements of the original promulgation intact - the lack of need for consent and social impact assessment while acquiring land for private projects; public-private partnerships and government acquisitions. Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh did move two amendments...