Do dollars dictate dissent? Are agendas altered as advised? Government statements related to these questions - specifically, the foreign funding of non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in the protests against nuclear power at Kudankulam - generated much discussion. The uproar is over, and Kudankulam will soon be operational. However, many wider issues remain, and these merit consideration. Among these, two significant ones are the role of NGOs - or, more specifically, civil...
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Youth in Pune fights corruption using biggest yet silent weapon, RTI-Rajesh Rao
Student of Pune-based MIT School of Government (MITSOG), Harshvardhan Reddy, who hails from Karni village in Mahabubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, has kept the Right to Information (RTI) flag flying high by filing over 300 RTI applications along with over 200 first appeals within a short span of two years. The first RTI application, Reddy said, was filed by him against the rural superintendent of police (SP) for delaying his passport...
More »Bill to eliminate manual scavenging in Monsoon session, Centre tells SC
-The Times of India The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it would introduce a Bill in Monsoon session of Parliament to amend the 19-year-old Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act to ensure rehabilitation of those engaged in such dehumanizing labour. A bench, comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar, wanted additional solicitor general Harin Raval to tell...
More »Scanner on birth control drive
-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today issued notices to all states and Union territories asking them to explain unsafe and unhygienic sterilisation drives in violation of an earlier order for safe procedures. The move came on a PIL by a health rights activist who alleged inhuman sterilisations continued in rural areas in “reckless disregard” of the lives of poor women, especially in Bihar. In one case, 53 women were sterilised in two hours...
More »RTE in place, but no water or toilets by Neha Pushkarna
Little seems to have changed in the city since the Right to Education was implemented exactly two years ago. A large number of schools still lack basic facilities promised under the new constitutional right. A study by Delhi RTE Forum-an umbrella body of 20 non-profit organizations-says denial of admission and absence of basic facilities in schools pose a hurdle in proper implementation of the RTE. The forum had surveyed 207...
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