The report on illegal mining in Karnataka, compiled by Lokayukta Santosh Hegde and his team, may spell the end of the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in south India. While the report is voluminous, here are a few details of what the Lokayukta and his team have found while probing the illegal mining scam. In the report the Lokayukta clearly makes charges against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Minister for...

The Right to Information Act was the great white hope of Indian citizens who are consistently denied rightful information. Not only does it specify that most information in the public domain would be provided to citizens by right, but it also ensured that failure to do so by the bloated bureaucracy would result in penalties for erring officials. Trust the government, though, to subvert its own good intentions. The state government has...

-The Telegraph   The Union cabinet today approved the Lokpal bill after overruling Manmohan Singh, who again advocated bringing the Prime Minister within the corruption ombudsman’s ambit. The higher judiciary, conduct of MPs inside Parliament, and the lower bureaucracy too have been kept out of the Lokpal’s jurisdiction. Anna Hazare, whose civil society group had insisted on all these sections and the Prime Minister being included, termed the draft a “cruel joke” and...

-The Telegraph   All Chief Ministers will be requested to give their suggestions on a proposed land acquisition law in the next one month before the draft goes to the cabinet. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today said that his ministry had prepared the draft of the Land Acquisitions (Amendment) Bill which will be sent to Chief Ministers next week. “We cannot do anything without consulting the states. Land is a state...

-IANS   The Bihar State Information Commission (SIC) today launched avideo conferencing system for quicker hearing and disposal of complaints related to the Right To Information (RTI) Act, officials said. State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)) A.K. Choudhary said the SIC will help dispose complaints against principal information officers for denying information under theRTI Act to people. Complaints from all over the state will be heard in Patna through video conferencing, saving...