Governance

The crop loan waiver scheme introduced by the State government brought the smiles back on the faces of debt-ridden farmers in Sedam taluk in Kalaburagi district on Saturday. Sedam taluk has been selected on a pilot basis for the scheme. As many as 353 farmers who had borrowed crop loans …

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, to explain the exigency that had prompted it to take an “overnight” decision to divest Alok Verma of his powers as CBI Director. “The situation which prompted the CVC to take …

Independent probe sought into incidents from 2003 to 2006 Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Monday expressed his resolve to decide petitions filed by journalist B.G. Verghese and lyricist Javed Akhtar for an independent and fair investigation into 22 “fake” police encounters that occurred in Gujarat between 2003 and …

The Centre has prepared guidelines for setting up of crèches at workplaces, which prescribe trained personnel to man the facility as well as infrastructure requirements and safety norms. In March this year, Parliament passed the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, 2017, enhancing paid maternity leave from a period of 12 weeks …

Taking some burden off school students in Delhi, the AAP government issued a circular on Saturday fixing the maximum weight of a school bag. It stated that school bags for students in Class I and II should not weigh above 1.5 kg, 2-3 kg for Classes III to V, 4 …

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to examine before December 18 whether the movie Zero has content that hurts the religious sentiments of the Sikh community and submit its findings.A Division Bench of B.P. Dharmadhikari and S.V. Kotwal was hearing a plea …

The biggest challenge as CEC was back-to-back elections throughout the year and it is almost getting resolved. I took over in the midst of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland polls. All those elections were very sensitive, because of issues like the terrain and underground cadres. But, that went off very well. …

In yet another major initiative towards paperless administration, the State government conducted a paperless Collectors’ conference on Friday.Lauding the efforts of the officials, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the conference was being conducted paperless for the first time. The government would save Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 7 lakh …

The fifth phase of panchayat elections in J&K on Thursday saw a 33.7% turnout in the Kashmir division and a high 85.2% in the Jammu division. “Overall poll percentage stood at 71.1,” Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shaleen Kabra said. Pulwama registered a mere 0.5% and Anantnag 10.1%. The south Kashmir …

The fifth phase of panchayat elections in J&K on Thursday saw a 33.7% turnout in the Kashmir division and a high 85.2% in the Jammu division. “Overall poll percentage stood at 71.1,” Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shaleen Kabra said. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/kamala-mills-fire-9-civic-officers-found-guilty/article25628812.ece

Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Dev has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary in the Delhi government, according to an order of the Union Home Ministry.Mr. Dev, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre, takes over from Anshu Prakash, a 1986-batch officer of the same cadre, the …

The Centre has denied a Right to Information (RTI) request for a copy of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018, which had been notified for introduction in the monsoon session of Parliament.The Bill sought to give the Centre power to set the tenure and salaries of State and Central …

With Erumely remaining largely peaceful during the first week of the annual Sabarimala pilgrimage season, the Kottayam District Collector on Friday decided not to continue with the imposition of Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the pilgrim town.Collector B.S Thirumeni said a decision to this effect was …

A Ministry of Home Affairs document in the Supreme Court on Thursday shows that vacancies in the country’s forensic labs are alarmingly high even as cases pile up in trial courts and undertrial prisoners languish in jails.The forensic laboratories, at both the Central and State levels, are used to examine …

Civil-military relations in the Defence Ministry are strained once again, this time over the issue of junior officers staying in hotels and not Army guest rooms when on temporary official travel.Expressing concern at the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA) asking for a Non-Availability Certificate (NAC) and rejecting refund claims …

The government had planned to introduce the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the Lok Sabha in July this year. But the Bill was not tabled following protests from civil society and the Opposition. The Bill proposes to give the Centre the power to decide the tenure and salaries …

District Collector P.B. Noohu has extended the prohibitory orders clamped on Sabarimala, Pampa, Nilackal and Elavumkal under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by four more days, till November 26 midnight.The prohibitory orders clamped on these places for seven days on November 15 midnight were to end on …

UIDAI gets more time for response on privacy plea The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four more weeks to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to file its response on a plea raising concerns about the security of Aadhaar data, in the wake of a reported leak of …

Severely admonishing the RBI and the PMO, the Central Information Commission has again directed them to disclose the list of wilful defaulters and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s letter on bad loans. The panel pulled up the PMO for not complying with its directive to disclose the letter from Dr. …

The first phase of panchayat election in Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday recorded a 74.1% voter turnout, with the Kashmir Valley clocking 62.1%, a quantum jump from the civic election percentage of 35.1 just 30 days ago. According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shaleen Kabra, the border district of Kupwara …