BHOPAL: Expressing concern over repeated droughts in Bundelkhand region, the two-day convention organised by water man Rajendra Singh in Khajuraho urged the Centre to "reconsider" the controvertial ken-Betwa river linking project. In the times of the climate change and global warming, the convention said, when the rivers are threatened and …
The negotiations on a draft Lokpal Bill today gained momentum with the government and civil society members agreeing on a number of basic principles of the proposed law and deciding to meet more often. Emerging from a three-hour meeting, Union Minister Kapil Sibal expressed confidence draft Lokpal Bill would be …
At Jantar Mantar on April 8, Anna Hazare addressing people gathered in support of his movement. A FUTURE historian who browses the archives of Indian newspapers and news websites from April 5 to 10 will be confused over how to characterise the groundswell of public support across the country for …
PUBLIC interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan was nominated by Anna Hazare as one of the five civil society members to the 10-member committee constituted by the Central government to draft the new Lokpal Bill by June 30. With his father, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, also in the same committee, critics …
New Delhi: After a fortnight-long break saw civil society members battle accusations of lobbying, the joint drafting committee of government and Anna Hazare nominees will resume work on Monday to draw up the Lokpal Bill amid strong differences on its architecture. Civil society was hopeful that substantive discussions on the …
Equally Effective In Ensuring Service: Study New Delhi: Transparency measures like the Right To Information Act are intended to reduce levels of corruption, but is there any proof that this actually happens? Two field experiments in Delhi by Yale University researchers suggest that this might be true; transparency measures are …
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } A high-voltage campaign to draft in record time a major anti-corruption law (Lokpal Bill) for India won concessions from the government in the street, but thereafter its leaders found the going much tougher. As a committee representing the agitation, known as India Against Corruption, held …
Arvind Kejriwal has been the moving force behind the India Against Corruption movement and the fast unto death undertaken by Anna Hazare at Jantar Mantar. He spoke to Civil Society on his draft for a Jan Lokpal Bill and some of the concerns expressed over how it has been put …
Nikhil Dey is the low-profile joint convener of the National Campaign for the People's Right to Information (NCPRI). As a member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), he has worked extensively at the grassroots for the implementation of the RTI Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). …
AS VILLAGE pramukh Madhuben Shiayal finished addressing the meeting, a dozen koli men and a handful of women who had taken off time from weeding the bajri fields got up to go. The hot April sun blazed over Khared, a village in Mahuva taluka in Bhavnagar district of southern Gujarat. …
“Stroke of the pen” reform is critical as in many cases policy is dastardly and change is laggardly. The essential element is to find that big-ticket item that can have impact on a scale and at a pace that is needed. I believe Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh’s …
The National Advisory Council, led by Sonia Gandhi, declared that it would have nothing to do with the drafting of the Lokpal Bill now that a joint committee of the government and activists is working on it. But at a meeting on Thursday, the NAC unveiled the blueprint of a …
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government today hurriedly cleared the decks for a long-pending nuclear regulatory authority at a top-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The step was taken in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan coupled with the fear of another Anna Hazare-type protest …
As expected, recent coverage in the Press has confirmed the feeling that the drafting and the passage of the Lokpal Bill will be difficult. The intentions were fairly clear from the way the Joint Advisory Committee was formed. With five members of the government being the big guns with a …
The Lokpal Bill movement of Anna Hazare assumes that monetary corruption can be separated from policy and that a skewed set of development priorities can peacefully coexist with complete and transparent financial honesty. This is a fundamental mistake. The Lokpal Bill is not ill-intentioned and some version of it is …
IF THERE ever was living proof of how bizarre our country is, then this week was probably it. Gandhians became demagogues and a people’s movement took on the shades of a dictatorship. And a government riddled with charges of corruption, ended up strangely smiling, as the cast of characters pointing …
Anna Hazare's long career betrays a naivete that makes him easy to manipulate. Rana Ayyub profiles the man who started the storm Those who have seen glimpses of 73-year-old Anna Hazare’s naivete in the past were apprehensive when he went on his recent fast. His integrity and resolve had always …
A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court today seeking quashing of the notification for setting up the Lokpal Bill drafting committee comprising social activist Anna Hazare, the father-son advocate duo, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, and others. Since the Lokpal Bill was already pending with a Parliamentary committee, …
