-The Telegraph Jairam Ramesh’s Union rural development ministry has sanctioned Rs 1,011 crore for the first phase of a drinking water supply project in Bankura. The ministry will request the Union finance ministry to approve Rs 3,000 crore for similar projects in South 24-Praganas and Purulia, sources said. During his visit to Bengal last week, Ramesh had discussed the projects for the three districts with his Bengal counterpart Subrata Mukherjee. Ramesh could not...
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Government sluggish on RTI implementation by Umer Maqbool
While Jammu and Kashmir government makes tall claims about the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, on the contrary its departments are not furnishing the mandatory information to the State Information Commission (SIC), thereby affecting monitoring and reporting of the law. Informed sources told Greater Kashmir that majority of the administrative and field departments of the state are defaulters vis-a-vis submission of the quarterly and annual information to SIC on...
More »MPs can fund work from discretionary quota by Asit Ranjan Mishra
MPLADS funds will only be used for the material component of the projects Federal lawmakers can now use their discretionary funds to finance work taken up under the government’s flagship jobs scheme, a move aimed at creating more lasting community assets in the villages. The government has decided to converge the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). But MPLADS funds...
More »Empire strikes back by Samar Halarnkar
As you read this, the Unique Identity (UID) programme is likely to have enrolled 200 million Indians. The UID, if it is allowed to, will eventually become the world's largest database of human biometric markers - fingerprints, photo and iris scans. It could go on to 400 million by the end of the year and 600 million by next year. What good is this? If you talk to opponents concerned with civil...
More »Reform by numbers
-The Economist Opposition to the world’s biggest biometric identity scheme is growing FOR a country that fails to meet its most basic challenges—feeding the hungry, piping clean water, fixing roads—it seems incredible that India is rapidly building the world’s biggest, most advanced, biometric database of personal identities. Launched in 2010, under a genial ex-tycoon, Nandan Nilekani, the “unique identity” (UID) scheme is supposed to roll out trustworthy, unduplicated identity numbers based on...
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