The Orissa government today filed a 500-page response in the Supreme Court on the stricture made by the apex court on the alleged irregularities committed in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state. "We have filed a 500-page response in the Supreme Court on the status of the implementation of MGNREGA in the state. Action has been taken against around 600 errant officials in...

CBI has finally asked CWG Organizing Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi to present himself before the agency, which is likely to quiz him about his role in dodgy contracts, a blackmail letter and destruction of evidence. Kalmadi has, like DMK's A Raja did in the 2G spectrum allocation case, responded by expressing his inability to be at the CBI headquarters immediately. Kalmadi has sought time till January 3 and agency sources...

The government will shortly set up an anti-corruption mechanism in the backdrop of scandals in which the Opposition has targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As legislative measures will be required to introduce certain provisions, it can even pilot an ordinance. Sources said the Prime Minister was giving “serious thought” to this mechanism with a blueprint having already been prepared, incorporating the suggestions given by Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the party...

It's simple and doable, but it is deliberately being avoided: N. Ram N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, on Tuesday emphasised the need for an internal news ombudsman in the press and the news channels in the country. He was delivering a lecture on ‘Media ethics and police-media relations' organised here by the Mumbai police. “Unfortunately, no one else has taken this up [except The Hindu which has a readers' editor] because...

Amidst a high-pitched BJP campaign for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai is all set to appear before Public Accounts Committee (PAC). PAC is scrutinising the sensational CAG report, claiming massive irregularities in the telecom deal. Rai, according to sources, will depose before the PAC on Monday. Interestingly, PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, a senior BJP leader, has started going about...