Thanks perhaps to President’s rule, Jharkhand received a patient hearing from the Planning Commission that okayed the infusion of more funds to deal with the Naxalite menace. After two rounds of meetings with the state top brass in New Delhi today, the commission approved a Plan outlay of Rs 9,240 crore, Rs 240 crore more than what was proposed by the state administration for 2010-11. The additional Rs 200 crore was earmarked...

While India’s new Right to Education Act seeks to bring free and compulsory education for all children, it seems to short-change them through an unrealistic vision of the private sector’s involvement. In August 2009, the Right to Education Act was passed in the Indian Parliament with no debate, by the fewer than 60 members who happened to be attending the session that day. Not that the Act was an open-and-shut...

Eminent citizens have petitioned PM Manmohan Singh asking him to ban all forms of child labour for those under 14 years of age. Spearheaded by international child rights organisation `Save the Children', 45 eminent members of society have demanded that the Child Labour Act be amended to remove contradictions between the Child Labour Prevention and Regulation Act (CLPRA) and the Right to Education (RTE) Act that provides education as a...

Forty five signatures and one demand – end all forms of child labour to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act in letter and spirit. This was the content of a petition addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The government should ensure that millions of children engaged in child labour were included in the implementation of the RTE Act. With this historic piece of legislation, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation...

Hours before the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met on Friday, the Planning Commission is understood to have released Rs.982 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. There was no official word on the reported approval of funds. The funds released for sustainable economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims would need the approval of the GoM, official...