Acting swiftly against a glaring instance of untouchability in western Tamil Nadu, revenue and police officials on Wednesday directed caste Hindus of N Kumarapalayam village, near Dharapuram in Tirupur district, to remove two fences they had erected to prevent dalits from using public roads. About 150 families of caste Hindus erected barbed wire "untouchability fences" on Friday to prevent over 50 dalit families living in the Aandikattu Thottam village from...

Union Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said the Centre will not budge on provisions of the Right to Education Act (RTE) including the neighbourhood school concept. “There is no question of relaxing any provision. Poor students need an opportunity to study in schools in their neighbourhood,” Sibal told reporters here. The Union Minister was in the City to deliver the Vithal N Chandavarkar Memorial Lecture on ‘Empowerment through Education’...

In the absence of any Concrete guidelines from the state governments, schools seem to be clueless about the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. On Wednesday, a premier school in Gurgaon stalled their nursery admission, saying they will resume the process after they receive guidelines regarding the RTE Act from the government. Delhi Public School, sector-45 in Gurgaon, which had started its admission process from August 2, has stopped it...

Small and medium farmers in the State will get energy efficient motors for their pumpsets free of cost to replace the existing inefficient high energy consuming motors, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi announced on Sunday. “In the case of other farmers, motors will be given at 50 per cent subsidy. This move will save 20 per cent of electricity,” the Chief Minister said in his Independence Day address from Fort St George. He...

The latest recommendation by the National Advisory Council on the National Food Security Act represents a significant shift in the debate on food security in the country. The discussions in the NAC suggest that the debate has largely been around the universalisation of the Public Distribution System. There also seems to have been other decisions taken by the NAC, especially on the right to food of vulnerable people and children’s right...