Under fire for rising prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked state governments to tackle shortages of essential supplies while promising all possible assistance from the Centre. “It will never be possible to insulate ourselves from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply. The State Governments must forge appropriate strategies to bolster food production and tackle shortages of essential supplies”, he said. Addressing the first annual conference of...

Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission S.R. Nayak said here on Sunday that the commission was receiving complaints regarding custodial deaths every day. “The number of complaints being received by the commission on custodial deaths has increased. We have been getting such complaints daily,” he told presspersons. Referring to the law and order situation and the state of affairs in Bellary district, Mr. Nayak said the commission had recommended to...

Jharkhand has pulled off a remarkable turnaround in funds utilisation for the Centre’s flagship rural employment scheme, spending around Rs 500 crore in just over four months after September 2009 when it was pulled up by the MGNREGS director in New Delhi for poor implementation. Of Rs 1,600 crore allocated so far to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme for the current fiscal (April 2009 to...

The aftershock of the global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of children in the world’s poorest countries of an education, the 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report warns. With 72 million children still out of school, a combination of slower economic growth, rising poverty and budget pressures could erode the gains of the past decade. “While rich countries nurture their economic recovery, many poor countries face the imminent prospect...

The Centre is contemplating direct inclusion of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and Minorities in the next below poverty line (BPL) list for entitlement of benefits under social welfare schemes. Inaugurating the two-day 10th Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues 2010 here on Monday, Minister for Rural Development C.P. Joshi said his Ministry was formulating the methodology and criteria to identify families to be included in the BPL list. The objective...