-PTI Aruna Roy also feels that there is still a need to see the RTI as a larger democratic and people's constitutional tool to make power truthful and accountable and put pressure on the political establishment, which it cannot ignore or distort. New Delhi: There is a necessity for a whistleblowers act to protect RTI users as the system has “strategised to stall” free flow of information to disempower and stop such...

-The Hindu Social audits ensure a citizen-centric mode of accountability The breakdown of institutions has underlined the fact that democracy — and especially public funds — need eternal public vigilance. But in India, the elites close ranks to neutralise voices of dissent and alarm, thus preventing public vigilance. Democratic governance needs the citizen to be legally empowered to ask questions, file complaints, and be a part of the corrective process. Social audits, as...

-Newsclick.in Around two lakh farmers will court arrest on May 14, which is the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Various farmer organisations, under the banner of Shetkari Sanghatana Sukanu Samiti, have called for a ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ on May 14, across the state of Maharashtra. The court arrest, by over two lakh farmers, is slated to take place on the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. They will be protesting against...

-Scroll.in The Kisan Long March will leave an enduring mark, the journalist writes in the preface to a new book that documents the historic struggle. Weeks after the Long March, the idea and image still lingers – of 40,000 people walking over 200-km, the last 10-15 km in darkness and silence (as silent as it is possible for such a multitude to be). Those farmers and landless peasants walked into Mumbai,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Coinciding with the anniversary of India’s first War of Independence on May 10, 1857, farmers from across the country will submit signed representations to district magistrates across India, demanding that the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman take up two private members’ bills, one each for putting an end to farm indebtedness, and for guaranteeing remunerative minimum support prices for all agricultural products. Also...