It's 10 years since he saw his parents and 10 others being burnt and electrocuted in front of him in Sardarpura, but the horror hasn’t left Gulam Ali Akbar Sheikh. Like the other victims, he migrated from his native village to Satnagar in Mehsana district following the massacre, but the fear has stayed with him. Sheikh remembers that they had just finished their dinner when the riot started around 9.30 pm....

-DNA   Four RTI activisits have been butchered and six have escaped murder attempts, as authorities continue to wink at the culprits. DNA profiles the heroes who are fighting a not so appreciated battle for upholding democratic values. Manisha Goswami Manisha Goswami, a resident of Vapi, has been waging a lone battle against the pollution spread by industries in Vapi. In the latest case, Goswami had moved an RTI application seeking information about a...

-The Indian Express   While Jethava’s killing hit the headlines, many others are nursing their wounds The murder of RTI activist Nadeem Saiyed in Ahmedabad on Saturday is only one among several incidents where those seeking to expose corruption have been targeted. “The Gujarat government has failed to protect rights of RTI activists,” says Bhikhu Jethava, father of Amit Jethava, an RTI activist who was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court in 2010. Bhikhu...

Less than half the funds allocated to the rural development ministry in the current fiscal year for programmes, including the rural job guarantee plan, have been utilized. This is slower than last year, but the government contends tighter monitoring has prevented misuse of funds. The ministry has released Rs.30,846 crore to states in the first six months of the year, or 42% of the Rs.74,100 crore that has been allocated to...

-News on Air In Jammu and Kashmir an amount of 186 crore rupees has been spent upto September this year under the Centrally sponsored scheme of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), thereby generating 38,337 works which provided 9, 18, 008 households with job cards. This was stated by J&K Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammed Sagar at a review meeting convened in Srinagar to oversee the implementation of various...