Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shot down the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council's recommendation that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) workers be paid the minimum wages set by states. The prime minister, in his December 31 letter to the UPA chairperson, clarified that the wage rate fixed by the central government would be indexed to inflation but not linked to the Minimum Wage Act. The PM's letter says...
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Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist interviewed by Krishnakumar Padmanabhan
Hidden behind all the administrative scandals that rocked India in 2010, illegal mining is an unnoticed beast that has been eating into the country's soul. While corruption in spectrum allocation and the conduct of the Commonwealth Games are primarily about monetary loot, illegal mining is about invaluable non-renewable natural resources. In at least five major states, there were more than 20,000 complaints of illegal mining filed, but the perpetrators carried on with...
More »Tuitions by school teachers in Karnataka may be banned by Maitreyee Boruah
Yes, you heard it right, private tuitions will soon become a punishable offence. Karnataka government, taking cover of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, is set to ban private tuitions run by school teachers — and that too, from this year onward s. Sources in the Department of Public Instruction told DNA that under the state’s draft rules of the RTE Act, private tuitions by school teachers would be an offence that...
More »BJP govt offers cash to school students for cycles
In a new year bonanza, about 5.92 lakh government school students in Karnataka would get a cash dole of Rs 2,250 each for purchase of bicycles during 2010-11 academic year under a welfare scheme. Citing its own delay in finalising the process of issue of tenders for procuring the bicycles under the two-year old scheme, the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today decided to extend Rs 2,250...
More »Endosulfan sufferers don't count by Savvy Soumya Misra
Many endosulfan sufferers in Kerala still not recognised NARAYANA Vokalliga from Belur village in Kasaragod breathed his last on November 20 just as his son was explaining how his father had suffered from exposure to endosulfan for 30 years. The former employee of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala used to spray the toxic pesticide manually in the corporation’s cashew plantations at Nanjamparamba estate. When the corporation switched to aerial spraying, Narayan prepared...
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