The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has recommended a Rs 4,250 crore programme to provide shelters and other amenities to homeless in Class 1 cities in the country. The council has suggested the National Programme for Shelters and Other Services for Urban Homeless to set up 6,800 permanent shelters for around 3 lakh homeless - 15% of the estimated population of people living in the open across urban India. The council, moving...

Bodies taken away by sweepers, cut into pieces and disposed of in jute bags The bodies of widows who die in government-run Shelter Homes in Vrindavan are taken away by sweepers at night, cut into pieces, put into jute bags and disposed of as the institutions do not have any provision for a decent funeral. This, too, is done only after the inmates give money to the sweeper! This shocking fact has...

-Express News Service   The proposed tiger reserve in the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary in Adilabad district is facing stiff opposition from tribals who are reluctant to vacate their homes. Though the government offered them a compensation of `10 lakh for each family, tribal leaders are firm on their demand for allocation of a house site and agricultural land as compensation before vacating the villages. Opposing the government's pressure tactics, several organisations along with...

The rural development ministry has rejected suggestions to halt the government's flagship rural employment scheme during peak farming seasons, proposing instead to include some core agricultural activities in its ambit to address concerns of labour shortage. This compromise formula follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to resolve differences between the ministries of rural development and agriculture.Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had called for halting MGNREGA works during sowing and harvesting seasons....

There is finally a definite figure to the number of homeless people in the city. Delhi has nearly 56,000 homeless people, says a survey conducted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The government has accepted the draft survey report prepared by the UNDP, in association with Mother, an NGO, as an official estimate of the number of homeless in Delhi. The report, titled ‘Homeless Survey-2010’, says the Capital has a total of...