-The Times of India With the introduction of a minimum educational qualification to contest panchayat elections, an overwhelming majority of the rural population in Haryana and Rajasthan rural population has been effectively barred from contesting. In Haryana the minimum qualification is matriculation for unreserved seats while it is class eighth for seats reserved for women and scheduled caste candidates. Census 2011 data shows that only 16% of the rural population aged 20 or...
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Hopes dry up in drought-hit Marathwada -Sudhir Suryawanshi
-DNA Talking about her late son Sampatrao, Gayabai's voice breaks. "He was cleaning a well to increase its depth and width. Suddenly, the manual lift that was carrying the boulders and mud from the well fell on his head. He succumbed to his injury even before reaching the hospital," she says. Gayabai Murkute (75) lost her son Sampatrao (45) in an accident three years ago. Same year the rain stopped falling. Her...
More »It’s obvious there’s a hidden motive -Vijoo Krishnan
-The Hindu Business Line The CPI(M) has many questions for Arun Jaitley on the land ordinance, including where food will be grown Arun Jaitley is clearly seeking to defend the indefensible. What he claims are the obvious answers actually seek to camouflage the hidden intent with which the BJP government brought the ordinance, not once but thrice in succession. The first question to Jaitley is why he as the leader of the House...
More »Land law not the only rollback: Seeds Bill put on hold over ‘GM’ clause
-The Indian Express The move comes despite three rounds of inter-ministerial consultations on the Seeds Bill, during which all ministries agreed to its major provisions, including five recent amendments. It’s not just the Land Acquisition Bill, the NDA government has also put on hold proposed amendments to the Seeds Bill, mainly due to a clause on the use of genetically modified (GM) seeds that it fears would portray it as being...
More »Myth of Muslim growth -Abusaleh Shariff
-The Indian Express Once again, the debate on census population data on religion misses the point. With the release of the Census 2011 data on religion and misleading reports in the media, the growth of the Muslim population has become the focus of the debate once again. Almost 10 years ago, in 2004, a similar but sharper controversy had erupted when the government released the Census 2001 data on religion. There...
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