"Inclusiveness" may be the UPA's winning mantra, but a government survey reveals that just 18% households in rural India have access to basis amenities -- drinking water, sanitation and electricity. Urban areas enjoy these facilities in 68% households. While the UPA regained power on its "aam aadmi" plank, the NSSO survey highlights that a vast majority in rural India still lack basic civic amenities. Around 65% of rural households have no sanitation...

Karnataka is expected to be one of the first beneficiaries of a major subsidised housing programme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana' for the benefit of the urban poor to be taken up by the Union Government. Bangalore with 577 slums and with a population of nearly 10 lakh living there will stand to be the biggest beneficiary. To begin with, people residing in a total of 3.05 lakh dingy structures or thatched huts in...

While the rest of Punjab has performed poorly under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Faridkot district is setting an example. As part of a project to clear all link roads of encroachments, the district will employ some 30,000 villagers under the MGNREGA. This scheme was kicked off on Tuesday at Ramoowala village by Deputy Commissioner Dr S Karuna Raju, who said, “the basis of this act is to...

Policy-makers, media and government functionaries have had their say on implementation of the Right to Education Act, but the voices of children in this regard are yet to be heard, Child Rights and You general manager Anita Bala Sharad said here on Thursday. In an effort to factor in the views of children in the discussions on the RTE, CRY held a press conference in which six children from Delhi, Uttar...

Few will take very seriously the undertaking given by the government in the Supreme Court that River Ganga will be pure and free of pollution by 2020. Similar commitments were made to the public 25 years ago when, in 1985, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) to clean this most treasured of the sub-continent’s rivers was launched. Even after spending several thousand crores of rupees on the project, the Ganga is...