NEWS

New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh allayed apprehensions of the RTI activists about RTI Act being dilutes. A group of RTI activists met Singh and discussed issues regarding citizens' right to information and related concerns.

On the contrary, he said, the government, in the last four years, had worked on the principle of increasing citizen participation in governance with more accountability and transparency, an official statement said.

The delegation of RTI activists, representing Right to Information Activists Social Welfare Society, shared Singh's concern about frivolous RTI applications. It suggested that a mechanism to check such applications be evolved, like imposing a fine or making it mandatory for the applicants to disclose their Aadhaar number, the statement said.

New Delhi:  National president of Yashpal Malik All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) threatened to launch a fresh agitation if any of their leaders was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the police.

Malik’s threat comes two days after his aide Pawan Hooda was nabbed by the CBI over the case of loot and arson at Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu’s house in Rohtak during the February 2016 Jat reservation stir.

Notably, another aide of Malik, Ashok Balhara, faces arrest as he has been named by the CBI in its charge sheet submitted in the court.

New Delhi: One of the important allies of the National Democratic Alliance the Shiv Sena has boycotted the no-confidence motion against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government in the Lok Sabha, after a series of flip-flops. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray conveyed his decision to his party’s 18 members of Parliament just half an hour before the proceedings of the Lok Sabha began.

“Our party chief has decided we will not be present in the proceedings today,” Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire said.

New Delhi: According to a UN report which warned that AIDS epidemic was growing in Pakistan, India saw a major reduction in the number of new HIV infections, AIDS-related deaths and people living with HIV from 2010 to 2017 on the back of sustained and focussed efforts.

The Joint UN Agency on AIDS (UNAIDS) report titled ‘Miles to go — closing gaps, breaking barriers, righting injustices’ said Asia and the Pacific regions have made strong inroads with its HIV response.

Sustained and focused efforts to reach key populations have led to major reductions in HIV infections in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam between 2010 and 2017.