-The Hindu The commission, which has won acclaim for conducting elections with fairness and integrity, is now in danger of seeing a huge gutting of its powers to do so The Union Government has told the Supreme Court that, in its view, the Election Commission of India has no power to disqualify a candidate on grounds of “correctness or otherwise” of his/her election accounts. A counter-affidavit filed by the Union Law Ministry...
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Violations of RTE in Delhi schools, reveals survey-Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
-The Hindu ‘Need for effective time-bound grievance redressal mechanism to deal with violations that are happening on the ground’ A study on implementation of the Right to Education Act in Delhi in three years of its existence has revealed “overwhelming violations’’ of the norms on the ground. The study by NGO Josh, with support of VSO India, has noted that while “73 per cent of the schools had contract teachers’’, in 99 per...
More »Change in food security law lets govt raise prices-Ravish Tiwari and Manoj CG
-The Indian Express Mindful of the fiscal challenge the national food security law is likely to bring, the government proposes to give itself the option of raising the price of foodgrains three years after the law is rolled out. To ensure that the UPA’s showpiece welfare legislation is not grounded because of opposition from the states, the food ministry is set to drop the provision for setting up a National Food Commission...
More »Govt’s goof-up derails Election Commission exercise -Bharti Jain
-The Times of India The tearing hurry which led the government to issue an ordinance in January, empowering the Election Commission to reserve or de-reserve constituencies meant for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes without waiting for delimitation, may not have been justified. For, the demographic data in this regard is still being tabulated by the census authorities, leaving EC no scope to even start the "limited delimitation exercise". According to census sources,...
More »Growing, and neglected
-The Economist A steadily rising Muslim population continues to fall behind IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a...
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