When the Right to Education Act was enforced in April 2010, it looked like millions of schoolchildren could dare to dream. The Act guarantees access to schools, a target that has been met, with the enrolment rate at 90% among children in first grade. The Act demands schools to meet certain requirements, including infrastructure (building, libra-ry, kitchen, toilets), teacher-student ratio, teaching hours etc. However, far from helping improve the situation,...

-The Times of India   The CBI will take into consideration the CAG report on National Rural Health Mission fund implementation in Uttar Pradesh, which has pegged the irregularities to be around Rs 5,000 crore, and is likely to register some more preliminary enquiries (PEs). Agency sources said detailed analysis by the country's auditor will be helpful in ascertaining further losses to the exchequer.  Based on the observations by Comptroller and Auditor General,...

-The Indian Express   A key accused in Uttar Pradesh's National Rural Health Mission scam has shot himself dead on Monday morning, according to police sources. Project manager Sunil Verma's role was being probed in the mismanagement of thousands of crores of central funds to be spent in the state health sector. On Friday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found anomalies in the spending of around Rs 5,000 crore under the scheme...

The smart card versus unique identity number battle between P. Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia will hit the ground tomorrow at Porthapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands when the home minister hands out the first tranche of 2.56 lakh resident identity cards. The resident cards are a rival to the unique identity number conceived by the Planning Commission to establish authentic identification for each resident and cut out corruption in...

-The Telegraph   Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today asked social organisations run by the Catholic Church to help the government carry out development programmes in Maoist-hit tribal areas but cautioned them against “religious mobilisation”. At an event held by Caritas India, Ramesh asked the Catholic organisation to help break down the “trust deficit” between the government and the tribal communities. But he added that Caritas should observe a certain “Lakshman rekha”. “I expect...