-Down to Earth These rules, if implemented, will lead to dilution of the Forest Rights Act The campaign for rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, received yet another setback in November 2015, according to government orders which recently became available in the public domain. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), the nodal agency for the implementation of the Act, issued a memorandum endorsing the Village Forest Rules (VFR) notified...
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Civil society urges more resources for social sector
Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made. Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...
More »Education norms skew results in Rajasthan panchayat polls -Kavita Upadhyay
-The Hindu Jaipur: It’s been over a year since minimum qualifications for contesting local body polls were made mandatory in Rajasthan. Though the law did give a chance to the educated youth to replace seasoned local leaders, it has also barred a major section of the rural population from contesting the polls. In December 2014, Rajasthan promulgated the ordinance, which became the Rajasthan PANCHAYATI RAJ (Second Amendment) Act, 2015 on April 1...
More »Big questions for our generation -Barkha Deva
-The Hindu The manner in which crucial laws are being amended will end up eroding rights that have deep consequences on the lives of our children and us as citizens of a thriving democracy. All because the state hasn’t been able to deliver what it was mandated to do. The last few months have seen an alarming trend of crucial laws being amended, or sought to be amended, in a manner that...
More »What The Chaupal Teaches -Pragya Singh
-Outlook Haryana’s new, ‘progressive’ panchayat election rules skewers the chances of women and the marginalised In rural Haryana, last year’s drought-hit fields are finally giving way to the verdant yellow and green of mustard, but the people are restive, even angry. All along the glittering 250-km highway that connects Rohtak with Nuh—Haryana’s west and east, also its best and worst—a wedge has been driven between the rich and the poor by...
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