Chhattisgarh, long known as the epicentre of Left-wing extremism, clocked the highest growth rate among all states in 2009-10. The emergence of the state as a ‘miracle economy’ is yet to loosen the grip of politics of misery-mongering. Chief minister Raman Singh discusses the state’s growth journey and its challenges with Bharti Jain. Chhattisgarh is the latest growth story, having ranked first among states with 11.49% growth rate. What are...

Slain Gujarat—based RTI activist Amit Jethwa has been chosen for a gallantry award instituted by a voluntary organisation working in the field of transparency. The organisation, National RTI Forum, has instituted several gallantry awards for RTI activists who have dared the adversities to get information from government on the issues concerning larger public interest and exposing corruption in the process. Jethwa will be given the ‘Satish Shetty Award for Gallantry’ posthumously. The ‘Lalit...

lain RTI activist Amit Jethava’s father, Bhikha, has claimed that a whopping Rs 1 crore, and not Rs 15 lakh as is being stated, was passed for the contract killing of his son. He alleged that the amount was raised by Junagadh BJP MP Dinesh Solanki from various illegal miners on the pretext of fighting the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Amit in the Gujarat High Court against the illegal...

In the five years of the Right to Information Act, activists who use it have faced reprisal across the country. OCTOBER 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Act and its implementation have been described in both administrative circles and civil society as “revolutionary” , “a blow for transparency”, “a check on corrupt practices” and “a people's intervention tool with tremendous impact”. Social activists and...

The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has created controversy in West Bengal. The gram sabha, the basic unit in the process of forest rights recognition, has been replaced by the gram sansad, denoting the village level constituency under the panchayati raj system. This has been followed by contiguous arrangements as well as initiatives which are inconsistent with the Act....