Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...

-The Hindu   If the proposed Lokpal Bill intends to address corruption in high places, the UPA government, as part of its anti-graft campaign, plans to introduce a Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill to complement it in the coming winter session of Parliament. At a joint press conference, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V. Narayanswamy stressed that it would go beyond the...

The Election Commission has turned down Team Anna's proposal to amend the law to introduce the “right to recall” option against non-performing elected representatives through a referendum, stating that the move would bring “instability” and “hamper developmental activities.” Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma told Team Anna members — Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kiran Bedi — that such a...

Ahead of its battle with dalit czarina Mayawati, the Congress-led Centre has made it mandatory for all central bodies to make at least 4% of their annual purchases from small scale industries owned by dalits and tribals. The decision, a leg up for developing entrepreneurship among SCs/STs, came as part of the new public procurement policy cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday which mandates Union ministries/PSUs to make 20% of...

In Gorakhpur, thousands have become a burden on their poor families Lack of rehabilitation facilities for thousands of children, disabled here after a Japanese encephalitis attack, has made life a burden for them. Already reeling under acute poverty, these children are now an economic burden on their families. The monthly allowance given by the Uttar Pradesh government to the disabled in 2005-06 was abruptly discontinued. “Life is worse than hell for my...