-The Hindu Health officials on a mission to check illegal use of scanning machines under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and prevention of misuse) Act 1994 Kochi (Kerala): Is there a potential link between the high number of scanning machines in the private medical institutions, many of them allegedly without proper records, and the dipping child sex ratio in Kerala? Since the health officials don't want to misread the situation, they have been...

-Newsclick.in With sixty percent children malnourished in the state, the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services, the largest scheme to provide nutrition to children in the country, is nothing but a sham. Sitting outside her semi-pucca house in Bilgram block, Kasturi says, "My children get five fistful of panjiri once a month from the Aanganwadi Centre." Thirty-three year-old Kasturi has never, in her parents' village or her in-law's village seen an...

-Outlook Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Slow pace of development work resulting in blockage of over Rs 8 crore and alleged irregularities in implementation of MGNREGA through payment of excess wages to labourers have been noticed in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district. As against 865 works sanctioned under 13th Finance Commission, only 391 works were completed and against allotment of Rs 16.20 crore, expenditure of only Rs 7.97 crore was made and Rs 8.23 crore was blocked,...

-The Hindustan Times   The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the secretary, Union ministry of rural development, and chief secretaries of seven states on the basis of an HT investigation which revealed that poor labourers were committing suicide due to delayed payments under MGNREGA. NHRC has asked for reports from the state governments and the ministry of rural development within six weeks. MGNREGA is the UPA's flagship scheme that...

-Down to Earth Over 30 per cent urban slums across India have no toilets or drainage facilities, in spite of funds being made available under JNNURM and other schemes Only 24 per cent of urban slums of across India benefited from Central government welfare schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) and other schemes run by state governments and local bodies, according to...