Civil rights groups blame packaged food supplied to anganwadis  Close on the heels of the damning hunger and malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report, which found 42 per cent children below age five across India underweight and 59 per cent children stunted,  comes another report on the state of nutrition among children in Karnataka state. Over 1.2 million children in the state in the age group of 0-6 years are malnourished and underweight, says a...

Centre favours CBI inquiry into alleged misappropriation of funds With the Congress-led Union government favouring a CBI enquiry, in its affidavit before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, into embezzlement in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme funds, trouble is apparently brewing for the BSP government under Chief Minister Mayawati, who is already bearing the brunt of the NHRM scam in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. The Centre filed the affidavit...

When the Right to Education Act was enforced in April 2010, it looked like millions of schoolchildren could dare to dream. The Act guarantees access to schools, a target that has been met, with the enrolment rate at 90% among children in first grade. The Act demands schools to meet certain requirements, including infrastructure (building, libra-ry, kitchen, toilets), teacher-student ratio, teaching hours etc. However, far from helping improve the situation,...

-The Times of India   The CBI will take into consideration the CAG report on National Rural Health Mission fund implementation in Uttar Pradesh, which has pegged the irregularities to be around Rs 5,000 crore, and is likely to register some more preliminary enquiries (PEs). Agency sources said detailed analysis by the country's auditor will be helpful in ascertaining further losses to the exchequer.  Based on the observations by Comptroller and Auditor General,...

-The Indian Express   A key accused in Uttar Pradesh's National Rural Health Mission scam has shot himself dead on Monday morning, according to police sources. Project manager Sunil Verma's role was being probed in the mismanagement of thousands of crores of central funds to be spent in the state health sector. On Friday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found anomalies in the spending of around Rs 5,000 crore under the scheme...