Jharkhand has proved it is both willing and able where disposing complaints related to physical disability is concerned. In the past three years (2008-11), the state received 10,095 complaints and disposed of 9,414 cases, a feat that has impressed none other than Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, Union minister for social justice and empowerment. A two-day meet in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, hosted by Union social justice and empowerment ministry, and starting from tomorrow,...

They prefer to migrate to cities to earn a livelihood ‘Apply for work, get work, and get paid on time.' This is how the Union government's scheme promising 100 days of guaranteed work in a financial year to a rural household took off in 2006. However, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) has failed to come as a relief for people especially those in drought-hit regions of the...

Job card holders say they did not get wages   Residents of villages in Seege Gram Panchayat in Hassan taluk alleged at a social audit meet here on Saturday that there were irregularities in the implementation of schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Bangalore-based Association for Social Transparency, Rights and Action (ASTRA), a non-governmental organisation, conducted the audit, and employees from the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat...

-PTI The issue of police lathicharge on tribals figured in the Chhattisgarh Assembly today with main Opposition Congress demanding a probe into the incident. Police yesterday cane-charged and lobbed teargas shells to disperse tribals who were on their way to `gherao' Chhattisgah Assembly here in support of their various demands, including 32 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutes. Nearly 1,000 adivasis were arrested by the police. Agitated Congress members...

Closed mines and resultant unemployment are still stoking Naxalism in Saranda, a maiden jan adalat (public hearing) held 160km from the steel city insisted today, indicating that more needed to be done to make the much-touted central action plan for the red turf a long-lasting success. More than 1,000 villagers from the Maoist dens of Noamundi, Gua, Kiriburu and Barajamda among others, which fall in the mining belt of Saranda command...