Hunger striking Indian activist Anna Hazare has called for mass protests by his supporters against corruption. The 72-year-old campaigner is on the fourth day of a fast to push for stringent new anti-corruption laws. He wants his followers to "fill India's jails" in a mass campaign of non-violent civil disobedience on 13 April. Thousands of people have joined Mr Hazare's protest. In recent months India has been rocked by a string of corruption...

Over seven lakh calls to a phone number set up to register the number of supporters for an anti-corruption movement. Schoolchildren who have swapped their cricketing heroes for a 78-year-old Gandhian who is fasting unto death. Cries castigating Manmohan Singh's effeteness being greeted by a roar in the swelling crowds. And a mostly-out-of work Uma Bharti scouting for a photo-op but barely managing one. At Jantar Mantar, the site of Anna...

Vishnu Medhkar (34) has filed a police complaint alleging that he was beaten up after seeking information about a Turbhe-based stone quarry workers' association under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. A resident of Turbhe, Vishnu claimed that he was thrashed on Saturday evening by three family members of a local Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator, Amit Medhkar. "Between 6.45 pm and 7 pm, I was assaulted by Amit's father...

Number of centres to be frozen There are nearly 2,300 PHCs in the State Freezing the number will help improve the PHCs Ten of the 30 districts in the State have very poor healthcare services while an equal number of districts have good facilities. Given the need to streamline the system, the State Government has decided to freeze the number of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and utilise the available funds for improving the...

Census data released on Thursday has brought some cheer with the revelation that the population growth has finally slowed down in India. Yet, it also pointed towards an alarming fact that the sex ratio in the age group between 0-6 has fallen. Even though, the people claim that they no longer differentiate between male and female offspring, doctors have a sorry tale to narrate. Homemaker, Sangita Acharya said that her five-year-old daughter,...