The Right to Information (RTI) Act finally seems to be serving its purpose: empowering citizens with information which they can use to demand justice. Reeling under an attack on their houses, a group of 13 displaced tribal families from remote Bhadrachalam used the RTI Act to find out the status of the land on which they had constructed their huts a year ago. Armed with this information, they have now...
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Acting against hunger by Bhaskar Dutta
A parliamentary standing committee has recently asked the government to introduce the national food security Bill in the winter session of the Lok Sabha. A promise to implement a Bill of this kind was first mooted in President Pratibha Patil's inaugural speech last year when she mentioned the government's intention to provide each family below the poverty line (BPL) with 25 kg of foodgrains a month at Rs 3 per...
More »Khunti resists new forest act by Suman K Shrivastava
The Centre’s sunshine law — Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, — has failed to find favour in Khunti district, the birthplace of tribal icon Birsa Munda. Villagers in the district said the new act is irrelevant as the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908, framed by the British following the Birsa movement, ensures more rights to the tribals than what the new law promises. Little...
More »Cost of flying files to Mamata: Rs 11 lakhs
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's prolonged absence from her ministry has cost the exchequer more than Rs 11 lakh over a one-year period. Expenses for travel of five officials between Delhi and Kolkata to meet Mamata for clearing files have cost the Railways Rs 11,23,550. The officials in question are Officer on Special Duty to Railway Minister Gautam Sanyal, Private Secretary Santanu Basu, Executive Director (Public Grievance) J K Saha, Additional PS S...
More »Process Betrays the Spirit: Forest Rights Act in Bengal by Sourish Jha
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 The gram sabha, the basic unit in the process of forest rights recognition, has been replaced by the gram sansad, denoting the village level constituency under the panchayati raj system.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....
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