The pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to enact the Lokpal Bill to check corruption by public servants is mounting, 42 years after another government first attempted to create such a law, as civil society representatives and the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) have joined hands to push for the early enactment of a tough law. On April 3, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI)...

Rising from ashes, Bihar is India's new phoenix. Recently it impressed the World Bank resulting in an aid worth several hundred crores for development of the state. And it has a number of lessons for neighbouring UP. In 2002-03, when census data was notified, UP fared better than Bihar. But, now the tortoise (read Bihar) has metamorphosed to hare, leaving UP behind. Consider figures from the National Rural Health Mission. Number...

Aruna Roy, a Magsaysay award winner former bureaucrat, was closely involved in the drafting of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. As a member of the UPA's National Advisory Council (NAC), among other things, she has been conveying to the government the views of civil society on the proposed changes in the transparency act. On the sidelines of 3rd national convention of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, held...

In letters to Prime Minister, he pitches for the project to continue and vouches for rehabilitation Digvijay urged Manmohan to get Environment Ministry to withdraw order suspending work He also said the State had made substantial progress in rehabilitation While he seldom misses an opportunity to attack the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh, documents recently accessed through the Right to Information Act show that the former Chief Minister and AICC...

A large number of rural women used folk art to show how they had fought for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), public distribution system (PDS), regularization of gram sabhas and issues like untouchability and violence against them. Lauding the efforts of the women drawn from several parts of the male-dominated eastern Uttar Pradesh, Mau district Chief Development Officer B.L. Verma said: 'Women empowerment was central to Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy.' He stressed...