Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources, has been a consistent critic of the idea of interlinking rivers (ILR). In this interview, he shares his concerns about the Supreme Court's judgment directing the government to implement the project, and explains why it is deeply flawed. Excerpts In your article in “The Hindu”, you have claimed that the government's stand on the project is ambiguous. The amicus curiae has,...
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Govt rejects CBI, CVC opposition to new foreign bribery bill by Nagendar Sharma
The government has overruled the objections raised by the CBI and CVC on the introduction of a new anti-graft law to book foreign government officials and agents allegedly involved in acts of corruption in India. The department for personnel and training (DoPT) has rejected their argument that the existing Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) is enough to deal with graft and changes should be made to it rather than going...
More »PM urged to reconsider changes in NSRA bill to safeguard RTI Act
-The Times of India Terming exemptions to the RTI Act introduced through the proposed Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) bill as "regressive", information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi and legal luminary Fali Nariman have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reconsider the amendments in the interest of transparency. Nariman said the amendments were "unnecessary" and against the letter and spirit of the Act. "I am distressed to hear that the government of India proposes...
More »Lesser poor people in India now, suggests new poverty line-Rupashree Nanda
If you could spend more than Rs 28 per day and lived in a town, or Rs 22 per day and lived in a village, you were above the poverty line. This is Planning Commission's new poverty line for the year 2009-2010. According to its most recent estimates, 52 million people moved out of poverty between 2005 and 2010. For rural areas, poverty is down from 42% to 33% while for...
More »'Rural jobs scheme should have off period during agriculture season'
-IANS States should be allowed to declare an off period for the rural jobs scheme MGNREGA during peak agricultural season, says Sumitra Mahajan, chief of a parliamentary panel on rural development. She also believes extending the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to urban areas - as suggested by the Economic Survey last week - is not practicable unless the scheme is made to include semi-skilled work apart from manual...
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