CPI(M) demands immediate tabling of long-pending Bill to provide legal aid to victims Eradication of the dreaded disease one of the toughest challenges for mankind: Meira Kumar Taking up the cause of HIV/AIDS victims, members of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday pledged to re-dedicate themselves to creating awareness of the disease and taking concrete steps to check and eventually eradicate it. On the occasion of World AIDS Day, Speaker Meira Kumar said eradication...

India continues to be one of the most corrupt nations in the world with many of its public institutions given to rampant misdeeds. Corruption is India's bane and threatens to derail its rapidly growing economy. The country ranks a dismal 84th in a list of 180 countries, according to Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index, a measure of domestic and public sector corruption. The corruption watchdog says that many African,...

The UPA government has come under severe criticism for trying to hurriedly pass the Land Acquisition (amendment) and the Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill during the ongoing Parliamentary session. Both the bills have been dubbed as anti-poor as their provisions are seen to promote forced dispossession of farmers’ land as well as large scale displacement of rural people. The haste with which the two Bills are being promoted could be assessed...

The UPA government has given in to the Opposition’s demand to immediately table the Liberhan Commission report in Parliament. To this end, a meeting of the Union Cabinet was convened on Tuesday morning to approve the Action Taken Report (ATR) that will be tabled along with the Liberhan Commission report. The decision was taken after consultations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Washington. The government was initially reluctant...

If the ordinance is not withdrawn, farmers will stop supplies to the capital, says Ajit Singh Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh on Thursday put the Central government on notice and warned that unless the sugar cane pricing ordinance was withdrawn, farmers would stop supplies of commodities and milk to the capital. “We will shut down Delhi,” he declared at a massive rally of farmers. The rally, which stopped Delhi on...