Last week's column, “The plight of Dalits and the news media” (October 25, 2010), has generated a lively and interesting response from several readers. The column was about the prioritisation of the tasks before the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) by its new Chairman, P.L. Punia (not P.J. Punia as erroneously mentioned in the column.) The concern of most who wrote was over the failure of successive governments...
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Food Security Sans PDS: Universalization Through Targeting? by Smita Gupta
The case of the Food Security Bill gets curiouser and curiouser. What started off as a fight between universalization and targeting has ended (or so it would seem) in a complete victory in the National Advisory Council, Government of India (NAC) for targeting through universalization (if such a thing was possible), with the honourable exception of Prof Jean Dreze, who has to be commended for his ‘note of disagreement’. On...
More »Panchayat polls: Unusual candidates try their luck by Maulshree Seth
Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh this time have seen unusual candidates jumping into the fray. There are teachers, shopkeepers, businessmen, relatives of politicians and even wives of BSP ministers. Some of them took leave from their normal work and some even sold their properties to take part in the polls. All claim they want to serve their village, block or district, but it is alleged that the lure of money pouring...
More »Centre plans to restrict interest rate of MFIs
The Centre is planning to impose a ceiling of 18 per cent on the interest rate charged by MFIs on loans to SHGs. This was indicated by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Chief Minister K. Rosaiah during a telephonic conversation recently. Disclosing this at a media conference here on Monday, Minister for Rural Development V. Vasanth Kumar and Minister for Agriculture N. Raghuveera Reddy said Mr. Mukherjee informed that the...
More »Abolish manual scavenging by 2012-end, urges NAC
Expressing 'deep distress' over the 'shameful practice of manual scavenging' in the country, the National Advisory Council, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Saturday asked the government to 'fully abolish' it by the end of 2012. It observed that despite the practice of employing scavengers being declared an offence, no one has been punished for it. The issue is seen as 'an issue of sanitation than of issue of human dignity,'...
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