More than 2,000 farmers and farm widows on Tuesday participated in a day-long hunger-strike in Vidarbha to demand the sacking of union Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, an activist said. In the agitation called by the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), farmers in Pandharkawada village of Yavatmal district, some 150 km south of here, also said that they would go on an indefinite hunger-strike to press for their demand. "The Supreme Court...
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Need for efforts to bring street children to schools
Street children collecting garbage scattered on roads near Sunderpur-Bazardiha area. The schoolchildren in the area celebrating Saraswati Puja on Tuesday. The two pictures in contrast reveal the sorry state of affairs when it comes to education for the underprivileged kids. The provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which came into force on April 1, 2010, call for free and compulsory education to children between 6 to 14 years...
More »India's silent epidemic by Ananthapriya Subramanian
Thousands of children and women die every year in India due to lack of access to basic healthcare. Why is it that, in the Mecca of medical tourism, the poor continue to be denied the right to health? A national television channel had a 30-minute special recently on how private hospitals are denying free medical treatment to poor patients. Under a quota, private hospitals are expected to provide medical treatment...
More »Increase sought in budgetary allocation for tribals
The Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) has urged Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to ensure that the allocation for the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) in this year’s budget is increased to 8.4 per cent, in keeping with the strength of the tribals in the country. They stressed that the shortfall on this account was over Rs 27,000 crores in the last two years. Members of the AARM, which works among tribal...
More »5 yrs on, no appeal procedure rule for RTI by Manthan K Mehta
Even though five years have passed since the Right to Information Act came into existence, the Maharashtra government is yet to frame procedure rules for applicants to file appeals. s under this Act. Maharashtra is the only state in the country that is yet to draft the appeal procedure rules, which are supposed to prescribe the process of filing a query, including the submission of documents and the hearing for...
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