-The Indian Express The State Election Commission moving the Calcutta High Court against the Mamata Banerjee government's unilateral declaration of panchayat election dates is a stunning development. Whatever the outcome of the court battle, the state already stands to accept that the dates it had proposed - April 26, 30 - are not going to be the schedule for the rural polls under any circumstances. Besides, it is largely believed that the...

-The Hindu   Success stories from the right to education law give no joy when assessments show that children are ill-versed in the 3Rs and classrooms remain discriminatory Three years ago today, India, for the first time in history, made a promise to its children. With the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education coming into effect on April 1, 2010, every child was guaranteed the fundamental right to eight years of...

-The Telegraph   Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government proposes to set up review committees at village levels and urban areas to keep a tab on all health related programmes. The committees, which will have people from various walks of life, will do social audit of the projects being implemented in their areas. Health and family welfare minister Damodar Rout today said: "The committees will be set up in rural as well as urban areas. All...

-PTI BHUBANESWAR: Former Odisha minister Raghunath Mohanty and his wife were arrested from neighbouring West Bengal in a dowry torture case slapped by their daughter-in-law, police said on Saturday. "Mohanty and his wife Pritilata Mohanty were arrested from a place in Howrah district of West Bengal by a team of human rights protection cell of Odisha police," highly placed police sources said here. Acting on a specific information, a "crack" team of HRPC...

-The Hindu   "If we are going to be serious about supporting women's SHGs, then we need a development finance institution" Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's proposal to establish a bank exclusively for women - which he described as the highlight of this year's budget - may have garnered applause from across party lines in Parliament and could be set up as early as October; but that hasn't stopped his Cabinet colleague and Rural...