-The Pioneer The Modi Government’s campaign to end open defecation is welcome but building new Toilets alone will not solve the problem Politically, sanitation is a hot topic but the focus has to shift to the villages. Open defecation is still a common practice in many villages. The plan is to achieve the Clean India target by 2019 to coincide with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Every year, health payments...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: It may sound ironical for a city that has already ‘killed’ its only source of water and fighting with the neighbours for uninterrupted water supply, but a construction exercise of gigantic proportions is on along the Yamuna floodplains, which green activists say threatens the river’s ecology. Huge machines have cleared over 1,000 acres where tents, hutments, pontoon bridges and a gigantic 7-acre stage is coming up to host...

-Livemint.com Tiruchirappalli, New Delhi Municipal Council area of the national capital among other cities in the top 10 New Delhi: Mysuru topped the rankings of India’s 10 cleanest cities released by the government on Monday. Chandigarh, Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, the New Delhi Municipal Council area of the national capital, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Surat and Rajkot in Gujarat, Gangtok in Sikkim, and Pimpri-Chinchwad and Greater Mumbai in Maharashtra followed. The rankings are...

-The India Express For the health, dignity and safety of women in slums, a comprehensive policy for the maintenance and construction of public Toilets is needed. Living in a slum in Bandra West close to the railway station, Vijaya wakes up every morning to anxiety over the trek she and her daughter must take into the open, carrying water cans, to answer nature’s call. They could use the community toilet nearby, but...

Seldom rural citizens get the chance to meet high-level officials who are responsible for delivery of public services and implement pro-poor schemes. But this was made possible thanks to the Accountability Yatra, which is taking place in Rajasthan since December 2015.   It is indeed a rare opportunity to find a District Education Officer (DEO) being asked directly by a simple villager in a public meeting that in how many school...