-Outlook Aizawl: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today formally launched the Food Security Scheme at a public rally here for Mizoram and said it would cater to the needs of lakhs of poor people in the country. The scheme would ensure that lakhs of malnourished and hungry people would now be able to avail food at an extremely low price in the country, Gandhi told the public rally. The AICC President lauded the Lal...

-Kafila.org This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa. Introduction and Overview The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green...

-Frontline The government pushes through the Land Acquisition Bill, but critics say it will take away more than what it purports to give. CLOSE on the heels of the passing of the National Food Security Bill, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government pushed through its other game-changer initiative, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013, or LARR Bill, ostensibly to address the injustices...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The UPA government claims it to be one of its signature achievements, but noted academic and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen has all but questioned its relevance and, therefore, its existence. Sen, a former economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a showpiece in the Congress-led UPA's list of minority friendly moves, had achieved very little. "I am not in favour...

-The Pioneer Forget about doling out mandatory unemployment allowance under the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), majority of the Congress-ruled States in the country are yet to notify unemployment allowance rules under the UPA's flagship rural job scheme launched in 2007. The rules mandate the States to pay the daily allowance to a registered worker if he is not provided a job within 15 days of the receipt...