A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister...

police detain three witnesses to killings in Gompad village, ban journalists from site  police decline comment on veracity of claims made in petition filed by Sodi Sambho and others There is concern that the facts surrounding the Gompad killings might never be known Konta: The mystery surrounding the killing of nine Adivasis in Gompad village in Dantewada district in October last year is deepening, with the Chhattisgarh police detaining three more witnesses...

Three persons were sent on Saturday to police custody till January 25 in connection with the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty (39). The three were identified as Vijay Dabhade, Parshuram Telugu and Pramod Waghmore. “Dabhade is a lawyer, Waghmore is a clerk in his office, while Telugu was one of Dabhade’s clients,” Bhausaheb Andhalkar, an officer of the Pune Rural police’s local crime branch heading one of the five...

Women’s groups have demanded a comprehensive legislation to address rape and sexual assault. A delegation that met Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily earlier this week, said there was a need to incorporate various substantive and procedural sections in the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act to deal with child sexual assault and sexual assault against women. Archaic definition In a memorandum to the Minister, the...

Year 2010 could go down in history as a watershed for undertrial prisoners, who for long have been the silent victims of apathy of the police, prosecuting agencies, prison authorities and judiciary. The UPA government is setting a six-month deadline, starting January 26, for the release of 1.25 lakh of the 1.7 lakh undertrials languishing in jail though booked for petty offences and despite having served a major part of...