While the rest of Punjab has performed poorly under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Faridkot district is setting an example. As part of a project to clear all link roads of encroachments, the district will employ some 30,000 villagers under the MGNREGA. This scheme was kicked off on Tuesday at Ramoowala village by Deputy Commissioner Dr S Karuna Raju, who said, “the basis of this act is to...

Few will take very seriously the undertaking given by the government in the Supreme Court that River Ganga will be pure and free of pollution by 2020. Similar commitments were made to the public 25 years ago when, in 1985, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) to clean this most treasured of the sub-continent’s rivers was launched. Even after spending several thousand crores of rupees on the project, the Ganga is...

Policy-makers, media and government functionaries have had their say on implementation of the Right to Education Act, but the voices of children in this regard are yet to be heard, Child Rights and You general manager Anita Bala Sharad said here on Thursday. In an effort to factor in the views of children in the discussions on the RTE, CRY held a press conference in which six children from Delhi, Uttar...

In what will be a first for an Indian company, the local unit of beverage giant Coca-Cola has applied to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for permission to use stevia, a natural sweetner, in its products. Coca-Cola, in a joint application with Malaysian company, Pure Circle, which specialises in extraction of natural goodness from plants, has requested for use of stevial glycosides (commonly called stevia) singly or...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's official residence 10, Janpath has consumed electricity worth more than Rs. 7 lakh in the last three years, a reply to an RTI has revealed. Out of the total bill of Rs. 7.47 lakh, the Lok Sabha Secretariat paid Rs. 7.38 lakh while Gandhi herself paid about Rs. 9000. As per the RTI reply, received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, 10 Janpath consumed a little over two lakh...