-The Times of India HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday expressed concern about the failure of big states in implementing the Right to Education Act. He was speaking at the state education ministers' conference on chalking out a community mobilization programme for RTE. "It will be a historic failure, if we have passed the Act but not implemented." Sibal said. So far, 20 states have notified RTE rules. However, big states like...
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WB governor dubs Mamata's 7-day deadline to Maoists as "generous offer" by Amitava Banerjee
Former special advisor for Internal Security to the Prime Minister and present governor of West Bengal Mayankote Kelath Narayanan dubbed chief minister Mamata Banerjee's seven day deadline to the Maoist to lay down arms as a "generous offer." On arrival in Darjeeling on Monday, Narayanan, talking to the media stated, "This is the part of the strategy to get the Maoists to the table. The CM's earlier peace proposal seems to...
More »Boomtown Troubles by Ashok Malik
IT IS one of the inspirational legends of Indian journalism that James Hickey, founder and editor of the Bengal Gazette — this country’s first newspaper, with its first edition going back to January 1780 — was a fearless seeker of the truth, taken to court and imprisoned by Warren Hastings, then governor-general. Reality is a little different. Hickey’s paper was often a gossipy, yellow rag. It thought nothing of publishing scurrilous...
More »Time-frame should be flexible: interlocutors by Marcus Dam
“Both government and Naxals are sincere about the peace process” Time-frames — whether the seven-day deadline set on October 15 by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for Maoists in the State's Jangalmahal region to lay down arms and sit for negotiations or the month-long truce offered earlier by the left wing extremists in return for suspension of joint security operations against them — could always be extended and kept flexible if the...
More »Security forces, Maoists exchange fire in Paschim Medinipur district by Ananya Dutta
Amid a deadline set by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Maoists to disarm themselves and come for negotiations, there was an exchange of fire on Tuesday between security forces and left wing extremists at a village in the Bankisol-Aluberia area in Paschim Medinipur district. There were reports that Akash, secretary of the State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was among those who escaped. “We received a tip-off...
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