India's Landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that...

-PTI CHANDIGARH/PUNE: Arrivals of onion from Afghanistan have failed to bring down retail prices of onion in Punjab as it continued to remain high, with traders citing poor quality coupled with low arrivals. In the wake of skyrocketing prices of onion in India, Punjab traders have been importing onion from Afghanistan via Attari-Wagah Land route. Daily 3-5 trucks laden with onion are crossing over to India, traders said. "There is not much onion...

-The Hindu Villages get infrastructure to conserve water and recharge wells Madurai: The district's dry pockets in the Usilampatti and Sedapatti blocks are alive with development activity aimed at mitigating the hardship faced by drought-hit farmers. Watershed and percolation ponds are being created in these regions. On the lines of initiatives taken by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and non-governmental organisations, the State government is establishing watershed projects to...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: At least 33 private hospitals in Delhi have been sent letters for recovery of retrospective penalty - from the time Land was allotted to them - for not meeting norms related to free treatment of the economically weaker section and for amassing "unwarranted profits". The letters have been sent by the Delhi government which hopes to recover more than Rs 1,500 crore in penalty from these hospitals....

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government is busy digging out old files to line up chargesheets against whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who earned the government's wrath after he cancelled the mutation of a Land deal between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty giant DLF last year. Days after Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda approved two chargesheets against Khemka, the government has decided to seek his...