What is life like at a water-strapped village, after its 15 minutes of fame? The hitherto nondescript Doba under Kudu block of Lohardaga district, with a population of less than 1,500, was thrust into flashbulbs during Wednesday’s high-profile visit of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D. Subbarao, who came with a team comprising chief secretary A.K. Singh and senior officials of nationalised banks. Not surprisingly, a hasty whitewash preceded the celebrity...

Legal experts have called for repealing of anti-beggary laws and demanded effective implementation of welfare and social security laws for enhancing sources of livelihood for the beggars. Usha Ramanathan, law researcher, Poverty and Rights, New Delhi, and B.B. Pande, former professor of Law, University of Delhi, said prevention and prohibition of beggary laws enacted in several States have infringed upon individual liberties and have provided powers to State authorities to round...

Experts and consumer activists have asked the Centre and the States to implement more effectively the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (COPRA) which they hailed as a strong and powerful legislation. The group, participating in a round-table of GRANIRCA (Grassroots Reachout and Networking in Rajasthan through Consumer Action) here, lamented that consumer protection remained a neglected area for the governments which failed to create the basic infrastructure for...

Expressing serious concern over faulty implementation of the government’s flagship programme, NREGA, in Orissa, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the centre and the state government to explain within four weeks why a CBI probe should not be ordered into the irregularities. “We are constrained to observe that the Union of India as well as the state of Orissa, prima facie, have failed to effectively and purposefully implement the provisions of...

The Supreme Court on Thursday rapped the Union and state governments for their failure to discharge their duties under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ( NREGA) aimed at providing "right to livelihood" to millions of poor in the hinterlands. Noting the disbursal of Rs 33,506 crore out of the total available fund of Rs 42,529 crore for 2009-10, a Bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S...